Deadly Coincidence (Brantley Walker Off the Books #4) - Nicole Edwards Page 0,79
“House blew up.”
Luca whistled long and low. “Heard about that.” His fingers moved faster on the keyboard. “Shouldn’t matter, though. If I know JJ, she’s got them recordin’, and that information would be saved in the cloud.”
Brantley peered over at Reese, forehead wrinkled to reflect his confusion.
Reese merely shook his head, letting him know they’d get into that later. While Brantley was good at a lot of things, technology wasn’t his strong suit.
“All right. Here we go.” Luca’s fingers stopped, his hand moving to the mouse. “Anyone ever tell JJ she’s paranoid? She’s got half a dozen cameras rollin’ twenty-four seven. Might be considered overkill.”
Reese didn’t respond to Luca’s musings.
Luca pointed at the monitor. “That looks to be JJ pullin’ into her driveway. Parkin’. Gettin’ out.”
They watched on the screen as JJ walked up to the front door, unlocked it.
“That’s Dante,” Brantley noted, stepping closer.
Sure enough, that was Dante Greenwood joining her on the porch. The camera was a bit grainy and a little glitchy, so every move they made looked pieced together, but it was easy to discern what was going on. Once inside, they watched as Dante gave one more look out the door before closing it.
“Pull up another camera,” Brantley ordered, his impatience beginning to bleed through.
Luca skimmed the other camera recordings until he found the one that overlooked the living room.
For the next ten minutes, they watched things play out just as JJ had said. Dante moved from room to room, they shared a brief conversation, then JJ disappeared down the hall in the direction of her bedroom. When she returned, she held up her gun, clearly showing Dante she had it. They spoke again and then JJ was walking off. Then the camera feed blipped and went fuzzy.
“What happened?”
“Looks like it got turned off.”
“Why’d she have her gun?” Brantley asked.
“She said Dante told her to get it,” Reese answered. When Brantley shot a questioning look his way, he added, “I just got off the phone with Baz. She doesn’t seem to know why. He just told her to keep it on her.”
“Maybe he was hopin’ she would protect him?” Holly pondered.
“She have a view of the kitchen?” Reese asked.
Once again, Luca was skimming the recorded feeds, but this time he was shaking his head.
“She does,” Luca confirmed, “but not from that time period. Looks like it had a critical system failure.”
“Meaning?”
Luca shrugged a shoulder. “Could be anything.”
“Someone disabled it, too?”
“Possibly, but not likely. I’d say old equipment. Doesn’t look like she’s upgraded these in a while.”
Of course it couldn’t be they’d get lucky enough to see who else was in JJ’s house.
“You think whoever set this in motion is skilled?” Luca asked, twisting in his chair to look at them.
“They’re somethin’,” Brantley bit out, pivoting and pacing.
Reese remained where he was, staring at the screen that showed a list of files.
“Go back to the camera at the front of the house,” he instructed Luca.
Luca spun around. “What’re you lookin’ for?”
“To see if they disabled the other cameras after Dante arrived.”
Luca keyed in a few things, then they were watching from JJ’s front porch once more.
“What time is that?” Reese asked when the porch light was flipped off.
“Nine thirty-seven,” Luca noted.
They continued to watch, although it was nearly impossible to see. JJ clearly hadn’t invested in night-vision cameras, because this one reflected nothing more than a dark screen with a few pinpoints of light every now and then.
“Hold up. Is that…?”
There was a sliver of light, and Dante appeared in the doorway, then he stepped back and another figure stepped inside.
“Son of a bitch,” Brantley grumbled. “Dante opened the fucking door. That motherfucker.”
Reese peered at Luca. “Any chance you can get into any other camera feeds nearby?”
“Like what? This is Coyote Ridge. Not like we’re spyin’ on the residents.”
“What about doorbell cameras?” Holly suggested.
All eyes shifted to her.
“Damn good thinkin’,” Reese told her.
She smiled, a light blush infusing her cheeks.
Before Luca could get to work, Brantley’s cell phone rang.
“It’s the governor’s wife,” he said, his gaze swinging from one face to the next.
Reese moved a step closer. “Answer it.”
Brantley did, and for a few seconds, he was silent before saying, “Hold on, Trina. Slow down.” He pulled his phone from his ear, tapped the screen so the call would come through the speaker. “All right. Tell me what happened.”
“It’s Dante,” the frantic woman explained. “He’s been kidnapped!”
“Trina, I need you to calm down.”
“Please, Brantley. Please. You have to come over. They … they said they would