‘‘That’s both good and bad. Good in that it looks like they were trying to frame Garnett. But the prose cutor could see it as a motivation for Garnett to kill Peeks.’’
‘‘Janice will interview Bryce,’’ said Diane. ‘‘I’ll be interested to see his explanation. Her pictures also showed that the house appeared to have been searched after the mayor’s body was discovered and the police had turned the crime scene over to Bryce. Janice said the original crime scene photos taken by the police didn’t show the disarray that her photo graphs did. I can’t be sure, but it looks like Bryce may have been looking for something—or he has a very messy style of working a crime scene. Officer Pendle ton said that Bryce and Rikki were looking for some kind of list and that Rikki may have taken something from the crime scene.’’
‘‘What do you think it could be?’’ asked Colin. He pulled into the museum parking lot and into Kendel’s space.
‘‘I have no idea. Janice also said the mayor’s com puter was heavily encrypted and no one has been able to see what is on his hard drive,’’ said Diane.
‘‘That’s interesting. I think. But even I have a pass word on my computer,’’ said Colin.
‘‘I got the idea that this is a little more heavy-duty encryption. I’ll ask Frank about it,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Frank Duncan?’’ said Colin. ‘‘He’s Atlanta, isn’t he?’’
‘‘Yes. The Metro-Atlanta Fraud and Computer Fo rensics Unit,’’ she said.
‘‘We’ve met. Not a guy a defense attorney likes to have on the stand,’’ said Colin. ‘‘Nice guy, I’ve heard.’’
‘‘I’ve heard that before,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Yes, he is a very nice guy.’’
‘‘You dating him?’’ asked Colin.
‘‘Yes. I’m staying at his home while I’m house hunt ing. My neighbors kicked me out of my apartment.’’
‘‘What? Neighbors can’t do that. Why?’’ said Colin.
Diane explained about the various times she had to have the police come to her apartment when someone went after her—the attacks, the blood. ‘‘They got scared.’’
‘‘You want to fight it?’’ he said.
‘‘No. My neighbors across the hall attend funerals for fun and once broke into my apartment looking for a cat they thought I was keeping against building pol icy. I had a downstairs neighbor whose ancestors were members of the Donner party. I was sort of ready to move.’’
Colin laughed out loud.
They put the security tape from the mayor’s house into Diane’s machine. The images were dark and fuzzy. She thought the mayor would have had better equipment. The video surveillance cameras were mo tion activated. Something had caused the tape to start recording. They watched for more than a minute be fore they saw anything. It was a deer going into the woods.
The next sequence showed Garnett’s car pull up and park. He got out and walked up to the door and was let in. They watched the view of the car for another few minutes. Finally Garnett came out. He wasn’t in the house long, but it would have been long enough to shoot the mayor. Garnett got in his car and drove off. After another several minutes of nothing happen ing, the tape ended.
‘‘That wasn’t helpful,’’ Colin said. ‘‘Why do you think they didn’t want us to see it?’’
‘‘I have no idea. Maybe because Garnett wasn’t in the house long. Let’s watch it again,’’ she said.
Diane rewound the tape and they started it again. Colin got closer to the monitor. The second time was equally unhelpful.
‘‘I think you’re right,’’ said Colin. ‘‘It was the timing they were worried about.’’
As he spoke, Diane rewound the tape and watched it again. This time she put the machine on slow motion.
‘‘This has to be one of the more boring jobs,’’ said Colin.
There it was, three minutes after Garnett left. Right where the deer had gone into the woods earlier—a figure. It had been just a blink at regular playback speed. The figure came from behind a large tree at the edge of the woods. Was he, or she, there the whole time? The figure moved quickly into the cover of the trees.
‘‘I’ll be damned,’’ said Colin. ‘‘That’s what they didn’t want us to see. Someone else was there that night.’’
Diane’s VCR fed the image through a computer. She used it for the very thing they were employing it for now, watching and analyzing museum surveillance tapes. She rewound the tape and started the playback again. She stopped the motion on the figure.
‘‘You can’t make anything out,’’ Colin said. ‘‘Can this be enhanced?’’
‘‘Probably some,’’ said Diane staring at the image.
The running figure wore a hoodie with his or her hands in its pockets.
‘‘We need a way to find out who this is,’’ said Colin.
Diane sat staring at the picture, feeling sick. She knew who it was.
Chapter 22
Diane sat in the living room of Frank’s house in the dark, watching the fire she’d built and wishing he was home. But how could she talk to him about this? There was no one she could talk to. She thought briefly of Mike, her caving partner. He was the only one who wouldn’t be duty bound to report what she told him, but she didn’t want to drag him into this either. She knew what Frank would say. Knowing the right thing to do is not hard. Dealing with the consequences of doing the right thing is the hard part. So is living with the consequences of not doing the right thing.
She picked up her phone again and called. No an swer. She left another message. She wanted to scream the message, but she calmly told the voice mail that it was urgent and to call back, please. She got up and went to the piano, opening up the finger exercise book that Frank had said she should try. It was both hands and all sixteen
