Apparently, pretty slow. Too bad there was no camera in the stairwell.
At four minutes past seven, the door opened and Liza emerged. She slipped through quickly and stood with her back pressed to the door, hands flat against it. Reed leaned closer. Her chest rose and fell as though she was breathless, and her eyes were shut. What the hell?
“That’s weird. She’s acting like she just sprinted up the stairs, but it took her seven minutes to climb three short flights.”
After a few seconds, her shoulders lowered, and she seemed to pull herself together. From what, it wasn’t clear. But she smoothed a piece of hair back and turned to walk toward the hall that led to the lobby. She startled severely, jerked back, dropped the things she was holding, and let out a blood-curdling scream. Although there was no shot of Steven Sadowski’s body, it was very clear what Liza Nolan was reacting to. She put her hands to her mouth, stumbled backward, let out another scream, and a minute later the man Reed now knew as Chad Headley appeared from around the corner, eyes wide as his gaze faced the direction of Sadowski’s body. He pulled Liza backward and wrapped his arms around her. It looked like she was shaking.
Reed’s muscles tightened and he took a deep breath. Ransom paused the tape, jotting in his notebook as he spoke. “So she begins entering the building at six fifty-four a.m., changes her mind for reasons unknown, steps out of camera range, and is back at the door at six fifty-seven a.m. whereupon she enters the building, climbs three flights of stairs in seven minutes, which seems excessive, and exits the stairwell appearing flustered and overheated.”
“Scared,” Reed murmured. “She seemed scared.”
“Okay, flustered, overheated, and in fear of something. But what? Something she saw in the stairwell? Something that detained her there?”
“I don’t know.”
He tapped his pencil on his pad. “After a few seconds, she turns toward where the body of Steven Sadowski was discovered, and reacts by screaming, to which Dr. Headley responds. Their statements about what happened when Dr. Nolan discovered the body are confirmed by the video. But I’m curious about what happened to Dr. Nolan in that stairwell.”
Reed pointed at the screen. “Rewind the video of that exit door in the hallway to six forty or so.”
“We’ve already determined that no one else entered the building through that door that morning.”
“I know. I just want to see something.”
Ransom rewound the video and stopped at six thirty. He let it run for a few minutes. “Now go forward to six fifty,” Reed said. Ransom did and once it’d played for a few seconds, Reed pointed at it. “There. Pause it.”
Ransom squinted. “There what?”
“The shadow. See it?” He tapped his index finger on the paused picture of the door and portion of empty hallway. “At six thirty it’s not there, and at six fifty, it is.”
“Huh, yeah. I think I do see it. It’s small though. What’s making the shadow?”
“It’s gotta be Steven Sadowski’s foot. Remember how his body was sitting all splayed out? You can’t see his foot, but you can see the edge of the shadow it’s casting.”
“Could be,” Ransom said, tilting his head. “Hold up.” He reached for the folder with the crime scene photos enclosed and opened it, comparing the shots. “Yeah, definitely could be. The angle is right.” He rewound the tape again and they sat watching for twenty minutes, until the shadow appeared.
At six forty-seven, the shadow appeared. If they hadn’t had their eyes trained in that spot, they never would have noticed it.
“So whoever dropped the body in that spot, did it at six forty-seven a.m.”
“Right. And he used an entrance without a camera and completely evaded the one in that hallway. It’s gotta be someone who knows enough about the hospital to know where cameras are placed. Someone who knew exactly where to walk so they wouldn’t be caught on surveillance or by other employees already there, and exactly where to position the body.”
They were quiet for a moment as Reed stared unseeing at the grainy video. “Okay, we don’t have anything on video except a shadow. But that helps us narrow down the time. And tells us it had to be the killer who used Sadowski’s card—it fits right into that timeframe.”
“Agreed.” Ransom reached into his pocket and brought out a nickel. “Next up, flip for a visit to the ME or Sadowski’s place to talk