Twist scrolled through the footage, switching to different cameras as necessary.
Maxence was facing a camera in the moment when Michael Rossi executed Nico Grimaldi. The rictus of horror on his face brought the rage rushing back.
Even Arthur flinched as Nico dropped straight down.
Twist said to Maxence, “I don’t remember him at Le Rosey.”
Max whispered, “Nico didn’t go to Le Rosey. He was my cousin. I was going to put him forward to be the sovereign prince, and that’s why he was murdered.”
Casimir turned away, biting his lip.
Twist tapped the monitor with a pen. “So, this is where you figured out you’d been set up?”
Arthur leaned toward Maxence. “I filled him in on what happened.”
Maxence said, “Yeah. You can see here that I gave Dree my cell phone and the ring box and shoved her into the crowd.”
They watched, and Twist zoomed in on her hands. “She was definitely holding your phone and something else, too. If we can find it, we might have a chance of finding her.”
Micah frowned at the screen and then at Maxence. “Is that the girl who was with you at Versailles?”
Maxence nodded.
On the screen, the traitors on Max’s security team hustled him out of the ballroom. Max said, “They took me up to the roof where a helicopter was waiting. Follow where Dree went.”
As they watched, the petite woman in the fluttering dress dodged and ran in the other direction.
Arthur muttered, “Smart girl.”
Micah had been watching the screen closely. “She’s talking to somebody on the phone.”
Maxence said, “I hit the panic app on the phone that calls Arthur.”
Twist flipped through several cameras, keeping Dree in view. On the computer monitor, she zigzagged through the crowd with the cell phone pressed to her ear until she approached the crowd of people surging for the safety of the stairwell.
Twist leaned forward in his chair and tapped the screen.“Right there.She turned aroundright there.”He shuffled the mouse and clicked the keyboard, and the video zoomed in on her. The people in the shot moved forward and backward as Twist adjusted the video a few frames back and a few frames forward until the man she was talking to turned to face the camera. “That’s the best shot I can get.”
The man’s head was tilted down. Only part of his bulbous forehead was visible in the camera shot.
A red square flew in from the side of the screen and centered over the man’s face. Micah said, “Run it forward and backward a few times.”
Twist adjusted the red square and clicked a few keys on his laptop. A small window opened in the bottom left corner of the screen, and layers scanned, building up a sketch of a face. Every time the man moved and different angles of his face came into view, the algorithm adjusted the composite drawing to include the new data. The computer-generated sketch looked like a cartoon of an exceptionally old man with sunken cheeks and eyes, and his skin was so wrinkled that it looked pleated.
Micah asked, “Does he look familiar?”
Maxence shook his head. “There were a lot of senior citizens at the Sea Change Gala last night.”
Twist said, “Then we’ll follow them.” He scrolled through the cameras, centering the image on the screen of Dree and the man holding onto her arm and dragging her behind him. Micah chased every glimpse of the man’s face with his red square. It looked like they were playing a combat videogame.
“Yet?” Twist asked.
Maxence still shook his head. “He kind of looks like the Crypt Keeper.”
Several more men surrounded Dree and her abductor.
Twist clicked on a shot to freeze it and leaned toward the monitor. “She doesn’t have anything in her hands now.”
Maxence’s heart thudded into the bottom of his belly. “Did she drop the phone?”
