“Ready to roll,” said Detective Sharp, perhaps a little too excitedly. I might have encouraged him to help me a bit too much. “Come to my side of the desk. Bring your chair. This could take a while.”
I did as I was told, although I could probably stand all day, or all week. My legs didn’t ache, nor did my muscles grow tired. I think, in fact, that my muscles regenerated and refreshed in the microseconds during use.
Such a freak.
No, came the voice from down deep. Not a freak.
When I sat, Detective Sharp said, “Shall we get on with it?”
“On with what?”
“The Starbucks surveillance tape.”
* * *
These days, all surveillance tape can be downloaded as a movie file. I watched Jason rather expertly click through various screens and files until he found the one in question. It read: “Sbucks-MP-Feed1-Open” followed by the date and time.
“Have you gone over the tape?” I asked.
“Not yet.”
“When did you get the case?”
“Last week, when Renaldo’s case files got redistributed. Been meaning to look it over.”
“What were Detective Renaldo’s findings?”
“According to his notes—”
“Which you just read.”
“Yes, but I’d spoken with him previously regarding the case, too. We all had. We were all confused by her disappearance. We all offered theories. Nothing panned out. Anyway, according to Renaldo, there was nothing on the tapes that seemed to indicate that she had ever left the Starbucks.”
“So, she just disappeared,” I said. “Poof. Off the face of the earth.”
“Seems like it. Trust me, it fucked with Renaldo’s head. He took the case to heart, worked on it night and day, up until the day he died.”
“You mean the day he was killed.”
“Right.”
“So, what is on the tape?”
“I think it’s time to find out.”
He clicked on the file, and a window opened. He pressed play and I think we both sat forward.
“Too bad we don’t have popcorn,” he said.
“I wish I could eat popcorn.”
“You can’t eat popcorn?”
“Long story,” I said.
He shrugged, and we both watched the screen.
Chapter Thirteen