Meant to Be Immortal (Argeneau #32) - Lynsay Sands Page 0,103

didn’t know who she was speaking about.

“She’s mentioned you,” CJ told her, wondering why the woman was there.

“Yes, well, we’ve been best friends since high school. I’m retired now, but used to work with computers,” she added as she sat back and eyed her portable, waiting for it to load. “Always loved computers and gadgets. Have them all over my house. Alexa, the Nest, security cameras,” she rattled off, and then met her gaze firmly. “It’s the footage from my security cameras you’ll be interested in.”

CJ raised her eyebrows with intrigue at that. “Do tell?”

“Nope. You have to see it,” Joan said firmly, and then began to tap on the portable’s keyboard . . . entering the password to log in to the computer, CJ realized when she leaned forward to get a look at the screen. She just caught a glimpse of the dark screen with the password box and then Joan hit Enter and it disappeared, revealing a mountain range background with blue files littering the screen and a dock filled with icons.

“Here we go,” Joan said, running her finger around the trackpad and clicking on something. A moment later, she grunted with satisfaction and then turned her computer so they could all see the frozen scene of an empty street at night. She explained, “The incident with Officer Jefferson and those two young boys took place on the road right in front of my house. Unfortunately, I was asleep when it happened so didn’t witness anything. But my security cameras did, and they have night vision,” she announced with satisfaction. As she tapped the trackpad to start the video, she told them, “This is just before the boys’ car comes on-screen.”

For a moment, CJ didn’t think it was playing, but then the nose of a car came into view, followed by the rest of the car. It wasn’t moving very fast.

“Mark definitely wasn’t speeding,” Captain Dupree said grimly as they watched.

The car was about three-quarters of the way across the image when a police car came on-screen from the opposite direction and swerved into the first car’s path, cutting it off. There was no sound on this footage, but CJ was pretty sure that if there had been, she’d hear squealing tires as Mark Loop brought his car to an abrupt halt. She didn’t know how he’d managed to stop in time to prevent an accident.

“The boy must have stood on those brakes,” Dupree said with a shake of the head as they watched a man get out of the police car and approach the other vehicle.

“Is that Jefferson?” CJ asked. She’d never met the man so had no idea if the tall, thin man with what appeared to be dark hair was the man she’d been trying to interview for weeks.

“Yes,” Dupree answered, and they fell silent as they watched Jefferson bypass the window Mark Loop was rolling down and walk to the back of the vehicle. He paused several feet behind the old Chrysler and surveyed the back end, then stepped forward, whipped his baton out of his belt, and smashed the back right light.

“Son of a bitch,” Dupree growled.

CJ didn’t comment; she simply watched Jefferson strut back to the driver’s side window. She knew he must be talking to Mark Loop, or more likely the teen was cussing him out for smashing his taillight, but he wasn’t moving and she couldn’t see movement inside the vehicle, and then Jefferson struck like a snake, throwing his fist into the car and presumably punching Mark Loop in the face. Then both hands went in and when they came out they were wrapped around Mark Loop’s neck. Jefferson dragged the teenager out of the car like he weighed nothing at all. He then slammed him against the side of the car and started hammering on him with both fists. He did that until the kid started to slide to the ground, and then he had to use one hand to hold him up while he continued to pound on him with the other.

CJ felt Mac’s hand close over hers on the table and realized that she’d clenched her fists, but she didn’t ease her fingers and relax. Her eyes were glued to the screen as helpless rage poured through her. She wanted to jump through the screen and stop Jefferson, but the beating was long over with and both young men were in the hospital. She would guess that the driver, Mark Loop, was the one in