Jude slid the window frame up. “What help do you need from me at seven forty-five the day after Thanksgiving?”
“I have a video recording of Maiden’s Cliff on the night Alexis died.” He held up the flash drive. “The footage is dark, though. So I’m hoping you know an FBI video expert.”
“I’ll meet you at your car in ten minutes.”
Jeremiah inserted the flash drive into the side of his computer. Jude sat next to him in Jeremiah’s home office at Appleton.
The video began to play—hills and the cliff, sun in a sky dotted with white clouds.
“What time of day did the coroner determine that Alexis died?” Jude asked.
“Between ten and midnight.”
“At what time does this recording start?”
“I asked Gil that and he said he always sets the camera to begin taking pictures forty-five minutes prior to sunset.”
“When did sunset happen on this day?”
Jeremiah downsized the video and ran a quick search for a sunset/sunrise calendar for Groomsport.
They spoke in unison. “Eight twenty-three p.m.”
“Which means this recording began at approximately seven forty,” Jude said.
“Which means if we look at how long it takes from the start of the video to sunset and then fast-forward around twice that long, we’ll reach the section where her death may have occurred.”
Jeremiah skimmed forward that amount and hit play. Nothing but black showed on the screen.
Jude leaned back in his chair and looked up toward the ceiling thoughtfully. “I’ve worked with several of the examiners at the Bureau’s Digital Evidence Lab. Video analysis is one of the things they specialize in and it’s incredible what they can do with blurry and dark images. However . . .”
“Yeah?”
“This video doesn’t fall under the purview of their caseload. There’s only one examiner I can think of who has a home setup almost as sophisticated as the setup at the lab.”
“His name?”
“Nathan. He’s young, but he’s good.”
“Can you ask him to take this on freelance?”
Jude tugged his phone from the pocket of his jeans. Even though he’d been rushing this morning, his beige long-sleeved T-shirt didn’t have a single wrinkle.
Jude dialed and held the phone to his ear.
“Tell Nathan,” Jeremiah said, “I’ll pay him triple his usual rate if he can work on this now, this morning.”
“And if he can’t work on it this morning?”
“For triple, hecan.”
“Hey, Nathan,” Jude said into the phone. He explained the situation and Jeremiah’s payment offer. “You bet. I’ll trim the video so that you’ll only receive the portion we’re interested in.”
Jude listened and then said, “Got it. I’ll upload the video onto a file-sharing site now and email you the link.”
Jeremiah waited, tense, while his brother wrapped up the call.
Finally, Jude disconnected. “Nathan’s going to get going on it right away.”
