down in his chair again. Immediately, his intercom buzzer beeped.
“Mr. Powers? Cole Langston is here to see you.”
Smiling, Thomas sighed with relief. “Send him in.” He quickly jumped up from his chair and moved one of the other chairs around in front of the screen. Two pairs of eyes were better than one.
Just as Cole walked through the door and looked his way, Thomas pointed to the chair. “Just in time. I have an assignment for you.”
Slowly, Cole finished stepping into the office and closed the door behind him. “I... was just coming to see if you are all right, and if your father—”
“Dad is fine,” Thomas quickly said, moving around the desk and grabbed Cole’s arm, pulling him toward the desk, “and I’ll be good too, as soon as I find the arsonist.” He pointed to the executive chair. “Now sit.”
Chuckling, Cole did as Thomas commanded.
“I don’t think you can afford me, man.”
“Who said you were on my payroll?” Thomas arched an eyebrow. “But seriously, I’ve looked over these videos and I can’t see anything. They show the fields as normal, and then they show the fire starting.” He placed his finger on one feed. “The fire starts here, but this camera,” he pointed to the one right next to it, “would show if someone entered the gate or not.”
Cole scooted the chair closer and leaned forward, resting his arms on the desk. He was silent for a few moments, but then he turned his head and looked at Thomas.
“Didn’t you tell me once that there was a section near the gate where the cameras couldn’t reach?”
Immediately, Thomas knew exactly what spot his friend was talking about. He groaned and massaged the dull ache in his forehead. “Yeah, it’s just inside the west-side gate.” He looked at his friend. “But, who would know that besides me and Darion? I mean, a handful of the employees know that, but not many.”
Leaning back in the chair, Cole folded his arms over his chest. “What if someone paid off an employee to get the information?”
Thomas shook his head. “Everyone is dedicated to their jobs. They are loyal to Darion. It’s not just my vineyard they burned. There are others that have been torched, as well.”
“I’ll bet they are all related.”
“You know they are.” Thomas scowled. “And I want to be the one to find the jerk that nearly killed my father.”
Cole turned back to the computer and studied the footage again, slower this time. Thomas relaxed in his chair and closed his eyes. He could offer a hefty reward for any information that would lead to an arrest. He was sure someone would suddenly remember seeing something.
“Hey, look at this.”
Cole’s voice snapped Thomas out of his thoughts, and he sat up straight. Cole pointed to something on the screen.
“I’m going to play this in slow motion, and I want you to look at the bottom right of the video feed.”
As the video was played slowly, there was a quick movement that wouldn’t have been detected if the video was playing at normal speed. Thomas’ hopes lifted. “Can you freeze the frame?”
“Sure.” Cole maneuvered the mouse and replayed the section, and then he paused it. He zoomed in on the picture.
When the picture became clearer, both Thomas and Cole gasped at that same time.
“It’s a woman’s high-heeled shoe,” Thomas exclaimed. “I thought I saw a print in the ground this morning at the place where the fire had started.”
“Now you just need to look for a woman who wears that type of heel.”
Thomas rolled his eyes. “Most women I know wear that type of shoe.”
“True, but...” Cole leaned back and folded his arms. “This person knows where to hide so the security cameras don’t see her, which means she either works here, or she’s very friendly with someone who knows about your security cameras.”
Thomas’ mind went back to that bead he found on the ground. Morgan said it looked like one of Joslyn’s from her jacket. If that was the case, then how did Joslyn know about the cameras? He definitely didn’t tell her about them during their tour. Morgan didn’t know, either, so Joslyn wouldn’t have found out from her coworker. And Thomas would bet good money Garth was involved somehow. That big-nosed weasel had always wanted to get rid of the competition.
First things first. Somehow, some way, he needed to convince Morgan to look at Joslyn’s jacket to see if a bead was missing. That would either eliminate her, or convict