Blood Loss

‘He went through the tape,’ said Bob. ‘He saw nothing, so he figured he wasn’t doing anything wrong.’

‘Like he’d have a clue,’ said Ren. ‘I cannot believe he didn’t come forward with this.’

‘He wanted to handle the whole thieving thing privately,’ said Bob. ‘He was just trying to protect his business.’

‘You mean his ass,’ said Ren.

‘His livelihood.’

‘Jesus, Bob. Two little girls were missing out there. And, so you know, we just found out that the buccal swab from Shelby Royce’s mouth wasn’t a match with Mark Whaley. There was somebody else involved.’

‘I’m not trying to defend Danny Holder,’ said Bob. ‘I’m pissed at him myself. It’s just he thought he had a crew he could trust, and next thing, he’s thinking not only could he have a thief, he might have even hired a pedophile.’

‘I don’t care about Danny Holder right now,’ said Ren.

‘Don’t get mad at me,’ said Bob.

Even though the small-town bullshit has everyone covering everyone’s asses.

‘I’m just telling you he’s a good guy,’ said Bob. ‘His kids are in school with mine.’

‘Oh, well then,’ said Ren.

Silence.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Ren. ‘But I just, I can’t stand-’

‘We have the tape, OK?’ said Bob.

‘Yes,’ said Ren. ‘Yes.’ Retract your claws.

‘According to Danny,’ said Bob, ‘the only thing in the tape is the Whaleys getting out of their SUV.’

‘You have got to be shitting me,’ said Ren.

‘No,’ said Bob. ‘He said they’re just getting out of it, unpacking it, and disappearing out of shot. He didn’t think there was anything crucial going on …’

‘Yes, to his trained eye. But … when did he set the camera up? His crew weren’t working that weekend.’

‘Friday lunch-time, before he left,’ said Bob. ‘He takes Friday afternoons off …’

‘And how long was the camera set to run? All weekend?’

‘Not the whole weekend,’ said Bob, ‘but he chose whatever setting compromised the quality of the footage so that the camera could run for longer. And it makes sense — he can see them on Friday night if they’re leaving with any shit, or, if the team’s on the beer for the weekend and they run out of it by Saturday night, or in the early hours of Sunday morning, one of them could be dumb enough to try to sneak in again. They didn’t tell him they were going away for the weekend because they figured he would hang around to make sure they didn’t knock off early Friday. Some of them were going for dinner in The Merlin, now that I think about it — maybe he thought it was those ones who were going to steal … while they were there.’

‘Where’s the tape now?’ said Ren.

‘It should be with you shortly. And you get the fun job of going through it. But, I wouldn’t hold out much hope.’

Ren put down the phone and her office phone rang.

Go away everyone.

‘Ren, it’s Cliff, I just happened to be talking to Glenn. Apparently some guy got the crap kicked out of him this afternoon in Park Hill. He was by the basketball courts, got dragged out of his car by a man, he used a baseball bat, really went to town on him.’

‘Is he in the hospital?’ said Ren.

‘No. He managed to get back in his car and drive away.’

‘Don’t tell me,’ said Ren, ‘was it a black sedan?’

‘Yup. That’s why I called. The basketball court’s only a few blocks from the Merritts’ house.’

‘What is going on here?’ said Ren.

‘Beats me,’ said Cliff.

‘Beats him,’ said Ren.

‘Denver PD’s canvassing the neighborhood … we’ll see what comes up.’

‘Hopefully they’ll find some paranoid neighbor with a telephoto lens pointed at the street.’

‘Oh, and Ren,’ said Cliff, ‘one eye witness said that the guy doing the beating was a big guy with a beard …’

Like Dale Merritt, for example.

The tape from Danny Holder showed up in the afternoon with a note from Bob.

‘Saturday 6 pm ’til 4 a.m. Enjoy!’

Ten hours. Yay. Thank you, Danny Holder.

Ren hit Play. It was low res and didn’t capture every frame, so objects flashed on and off the screen.

Shit.

The camera had been placed lower than it should have, and Holder hadn’t allowed for the dim lighting so the footage was in shades of mid-gray to black.

Ren fast-forwarded through much of it, stopping when she saw some action. She rewound, and lined it up. It was 19.05 — the Whaleys’ SUV pulled into the parking garage. The camera faced the driver’s side. Mark Whaley got out and went around to open the back door. Erica Whaley appeared beside him having come around from the passenger side. Then Laurie Whaley appeared from the driver’s side with Leo on her hip. She handed Leo to Erica. Then she staggered forward. She was at the front of the frame, bent over, clutching her stomach. Erica and Mark followed her around. Mark crouched down to see if she was OK. Erica was bending down as much as she could with Leo in her arms. Laurie moved her hands to her knees, and looked like she was taking deep breaths. Her father was rubbing her back. She slowly came to her feet a minute later. She was nodding. She was OK. Mark handed her a bottle of water. Erica walked with her and Leo out of shot. Mark continued to unpack the car.

Despite the stomach-ache drama, it was the standard family preparing to go into a hotel. Except within seventy-two hours, the father was involved in a murder-suicide with the sitter they were about to call for.

Ren rewound and hit Play. She watched it again. And again. And again.

Oh. My. God.

She pressed Pause.

What the fuck?

She squinted at the screen, paused at when Laurie was bent over. Laurie’s feet. Mark Whaley’s feet. Ren hit Play again. Then Pause. Laurie’s feet. Mark Whaley’s feet. And there, in the middle, another pair of feet. At the passenger side.

Ren watched five more times. And flashing on and off, was an extra pair of feet, visible under the SUV.

She rewound the tape again, and looked out for more movement, for anything coming from the direction of the entrance, but there was nothing. No cars drove by to the left of the SUV, none to the right.

What? I’m going blind …

Ren ran into Gary’s office. ‘Come down to the AV room,’ she said. ‘You’ve got to see this.’

He followed her. She sat him down and stood by his shoulder, talking him through what she saw.

‘Someone was in that parking garage,’ said Ren. ‘And they were right by the Whaleys. They could have been waiting. They could have heard exactly what their plans were. They could have heard that Laurie wasn’t feeling well, meaning she could have been vulnerable. They would have known her name, Leo’s name.’

‘Are they feet?’ said Gary, leaning into the screen.

Ren enlarged the image. ‘It’s still very blurry.’ She looked at Gary. ‘But I think they’re feet.’

‘But one looks higher than the other.’

‘It’s probably the angle,’ said Ren.

‘Is there any other footage — another camera, another angle?’ said Gary.

‘No,’ said Ren. ‘It’s the missing frame thing — the feet are gone in the next shot, and they don’t reappear.’

Gary slid the chair back from the desk and stood up. ‘Leave it for the techs to have another look at, see if there’s anything they can do … because this … doesn’t really give us anything.’