“Absolutely.” Then she pushed the mixer through the door and over to the van.
Right. I should do more than gawk and speculate. I tossed a bunch of utility knives and hammers into a box. The crew probably had a better way of organizing the equipment, but I figured speed was more important than organization at this point.
When she came back in, I was ready with my next question.
“Is anything missing or different from the last time you were here?”
Paula scanned the room, then turned to gape at me. “Shit. How the hell did I forget about the damn cameras? We don’t typically use them, but this is a big project. We have a lot of supplies on site, so Jim picked some up.”
“Wow, really?” This was it! We’d finally know what happened. “Where are they? I bet they recorded what happened?—”
Paula darted around the room. When she returned empty-handed, my heart sank. “They’re gone.”
Well, damn. That would’ve been too easy, wouldn’t it?
“Maybe the police took them,” she said, wringing her hands.
“If that was the case, wouldn’t they have arrested someone already?”
“Yeah. You’re right. Do you think the murderer took them?” She shuddered. “I need to get out of here. This place is messing with my head, you know?” She bolted for the back room as if chased by Winston and Jim’s ghosts.
I sighed and grabbed a big bucket of screws to haul out to the van. It was either spectacularly heavy, or I was spectacularly out of shape. I was still panting by the time I returned to the store. As soon as I was inside again, Paula approached me. Her face was pale as she glanced toward the street, as if to check if anyone was close.
She leaned close and whispered, “The cameras were supposed to back up to the cloud.”
“Really?” Did that mean the evidence might still be there? I felt like I was on a freaking roller coaster.
Paula nodded. “I don’t have the link on my phone, but I can check on the computer back at the office. I mean, it should be there, but it might not be. Jim wasn’t the most technologically savvy guy in the world, you know?”
“Can you still check?”
“Absolutely. Winston was a dick, but he didn’t deserve to die. And Jim, fuck…” Her eyes welled up with tears. “He definitely didn’t deserve to die. He was one of the good ones, you know? He was going to propose to his girlfriend. It was all he could talk about for the last month or so.” She wiped the tears with the back of her hand. “Fuck. Okay. Enough of that. Let’s get the rest of this packed up. I want to get out of here.”
I helped her load up the van. And my mind was reeling the whole time. If she found those recordings, we’d finally know what had happened. We’d finally know who the murderer was.
Chapter Twenty
Meeting agenda: Misfits and Mates
Gideon
I sent out a message to the group and then went next door to let Elwood know what was going on. I didn’t think anyone was in danger. Mellgren was a very old vampire, and he knew how to control himself, but it wasn’t like him to reach out for help, so we needed to take it seriously.
Besides, this whole murder situation had everyone on edge, and we hadn’t had a real meeting since before it all blew up.
I expected to see Declan when I walked in, but to my surprise, it was just Elwood and Tulip standing at the counter packing boxes.
“Where’s Declan?” I asked.
Elwood chuckled. “It’s pretty sad if you’re at the point where you can’t even make it an hour without looking for him.”
I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t come over here looking for Declan, old man. Didn’t you get your text?”
“No, I did not get a text,” he grumbled, reaching for his phone. He glared at the screen and then shook his head. “Okay, so I got the text, I just didn’t read the text.” His eyebrows scrunched up as he read the message I’d sent.
“Is Mellgren all right?”
“I think so. He’s just stressed.”
