Meant to Be Immortal (Argeneau #32) - Lynsay Sands Page 0,104
the coma. He was obviously unconscious on-screen, yet Jefferson was holding him up by his arm and continuing to slam his fist into the boy’s head.
“Here comes Mike,” Dupree said as they watched another young man run around the back of the car and charge on Jefferson. He jumped on his back like a monkey jumping on a tree trunk and wrapped his arm around his throat, but when that had no effect, he slid off of him and punched him in the side. The kidneys, she recalled someone mentioning.
That got Jefferson’s attention. Dropping Mark Loop like he was garbage, he turned on Mike and started laying into him, punching him in the head and upper chest until the younger man stumbled back and collapsed to the ground. Much to CJ’s relief, Jefferson didn’t continue wailing on the unconscious young men. He just stood there for a minute. It looked to her like he was trying to catch his breath and then he turned and slammed his own head into Mark Loop’s car once, and then again. He raised a hand to feel his forehead as he turned to look from one boy to the other, and then reached for his radio and began to speak into it.
CJ sat back, finally allowing her fingers to unclench. She turned the hand Mac held so that she could hold him back, and squeezed gently in appreciation of the silent support.
“He doesn’t do anything after that of much interest,” Joan told them as she stopped the video. “He smokes a cigarette, gives Mark another kick or two, and then the ambulance arrives.” Joan glanced at Captain Dupree and added, “You showed up a couple minutes after the ambulance.”
Dupree nodded. “I’ll need that footage.”
Joan promptly held up two USB sticks. “I made copies for both of you.”
Dupree took the one she held out to him, asking, “Does it have everything on it?”
“Everything including an hour before and an hour after,” Joan assured him. She passed CJ the other USB stick with a wry grin and admitted, “I wasn’t sure how much you’d need so I overdid it as usual.”
“Better safe than sorry,” CJ responded as she accepted the USB stick, and then added solemnly, “Thank you.”
“My pleasure,” Joan assured her as she shut down her portable. “I’m just glad my tech obsession might come in useful for a change.”
CJ smiled and then shifted her gaze to Laurie as the waitress arrived at their table. “What can I get you, Miss Joan?” she asked, and then told her, “I was going to come over sooner, but you all seemed busy with something and I didn’t want to intrude.”
“No worries, Laurie,” Joan assured her, closing her computer and sliding out of the booth. “I don’t need anything. I’m not staying. I just stopped in to show Ms. Cummings something. Now I have to go back to the bed-and-breakfast and show Millie.”
“Now, Joan, that’s evidence,” Captain Dupree said with irritation. “You can’t go around showing it to everyone.”
“I won’t,” she assured him. “Just Millie. I promised,” she added with a wry grin. “I stopped there first looking for Ms. Cummings and she directed me here. In return, I promised to go back for tea and show her the video.”
Captain Dupree scowled and opened his mouth, probably to threaten to take her computer away, but Joan was no one’s fool. She was already bustling away, the portable tucked under her arm.
Dupree heaved an exasperated sigh as he watched her go, then shifted out of the booth as well. “I need to call into the office and put out an APB on Steve. Then I want to go check the road where Keith Kaye was stopped. If he smashed the taillight there like he did Mark Loop’s car, there should be a couple of pieces left at least. It was on a rural route and there are no sewers for the rain to wash them down,” he added, and then asked, “Do you still want to interview him?”
CJ nodded. “I have to at least see what he has to say for himself to write my report.”
“Do you want me to call you when they pick him up?”
CJ shook her head. “I’ll come over at 2:45 as planned. I promised I’d be here until then for anyone who might have helpful information, so we may as well stick to the three o’clock appointment.”
“I’ll make sure to be back before that, then,” Dupree said, and nodded to them before heading out.