She was working on computing some histograms in Excel when she heard a vehicle pull up to the station.Glanced over her shoulder at the sound of footsteps coming up the wooden stairs out back.Shock sluiced through her when the new sheriff walked in—along with the asshole developer.
She shot out of her chair, looking between the two of them.Bristling for a fight.Had that bastard filed a complaint against her?She hadn’t laid a hand on him—but she’d thought about it.“What’s going on?”
“Dr.Lazos, I’m Sheriff Torres.This is Blaine?—”
“We’ve met,” she said, shooting the developer a cold look.Blaine.Like the city on the border with BC?His dress shirt and pants had dirt streaked all over them.The evil part of her hoped the stains wouldn’t come out.“What can I do for you?”
“Do you have any security cameras on site?Specifically, any that capture the parking area and the access road,” the sheriff said.
Surprise eroded some of the anger.“Yes, we do.Can I ask what this is regarding?”
“An ongoing investigation.I don’t have a warrant, but the crime involved could put this facility and potentially your staff in danger.”
More danger than eventually being torn down by the guy standing next to you?
She held the snark back and spoke to Allistair, who was hanging on every word with clear interest.“Dr.Canton, can you please access the security feeds and find the camera in question?”
“Sure.”He whipped around and began typing commands on his keyboard.Various security feeds popped up on his screen.“This one has the best angle of what you just mentioned,” he said to the other men, angling his body so they could see.
Sheriff Torres leaned in closer.Blaine stayed behind him.Why was he here with the sheriff?Had someone been trespassing or vandalizing the property he and his buddies now owned?
“That’s perfect,” the sheriff said.“How long do you save footage for?”
“I’m not actually sure,” Allistair said.“Thirty days, I think.”
“Is there any time or day of the week when this place is regularly unoccupied?”
“Uhh, normally at night, unless someone is working on a tight deadline.”
“What about the weekends?”
“Depends,” Xanthe answered.“It’s pretty common for at least one of us to be here on Saturdays.Sometimes Sundays as well.”Her gaze shot to Blaine.“Contrary to what some in the private sector think, scientists do put in overtime.”
The sheriff nodded and spoke to Allistair.“Can you get us footage from the end of July?Say...”He looked to Blaine.
“July twenty-seventh,” Blaine said, looking at his phone.“It was a Thursday, so check the feed after everyone would have gone home that night.”
“Got it.”Allistair typed away, scrolled through a list of dates and clicked on the correct one.“Just let me fast forward.”
Xanthe rolled her chair closer to him, sat off to his left while he sped through the video.“That’s me,” she said, watching as she climbed into her vehicle.
“You were the last to leave?”
“Yes.”
Allistair paused the feed and looked at the men.“Want me to play it at normal speed, or...”
“Speed it up, and stop if anyone comes back on camera once Dr.Lazos leaves,” the sheriff said.
“Sure.”Allistair played it forward at top speed, stopping when headlights appeared at the bend in the access road leading to the parking area.
They all watched as a large, dark pickup stopped at the far right of the screen and shut its lights off.It was dark.
“Can you enhance the lighting at all?”the sheriff asked.
“I can do better than that.All our cameras have infrared to track our eagles and nocturnal animals.”
Four human figures emerged from the truck, their faces glowing in the infrared feed.The rest of them were totally black, including their hands.They had to be wearing gloves.“What are they doing?”she asked.
