“Fine.” She grunted. “But we’re going to need better coffee than what’s in that expensive pot.”
He lowered his voice and said, “Don’t say that too loudly. Gina’s got issues when it comes to her beans.” After a pause, he added in an approving voice, “But feel free to express yourself.I’m all for my subordinates working things out amongst themselves.”
Subordinate? It was like he was trying to annoy her.
“Just be careful,” he continued. “I don’t want to think about how awkward the office dynamics could get if people started pulling hair.”
“Or punching people in their big mouths,” she growled, aware he was deliberately aggravating her.
“Exactly.” He stood, serious once more. “When you’ve schooled yourself on our vics, I have some video I’d like you to watch.”
Gina overheard. “I prepped the files for the fun box. Have at it.”
“Fun box?” Jane asked.
Rapp nodded. “There’s a small room over there, behind the black door.”
“Oh, I thought that was the bathroom.”
“No. That’s down the hall by my office. Men’s and women’s on either side. I don’t care which you use, justdon’t leave a mess,” he ended on a raised voice, his focus on Diego.
“The fun box?” she reminded him.
“Follow me.”
She trailed him to the black door and after he pushed it open, glanced inside.
A large monitor, surrounded by several smaller ones, occupied a wide desk. A few computer towers sat on the floor by it. She noticed a pedal on the floor and hand controls on the desk.
“It’s where we like to view feeds. According to Diego, this setup has better power for speed and sound and whatever else you need to smoothly process video. The monitors are top of the line, and we have access to VHS and DVD players as well. Most of it’s streaming, but not all. We’ve been grabbing all thesurveillance video from surrounding areas to the crimes, which hasn’t been easy, especially considering the doctors’ deaths weren’t suspicious at first.” He paused. “It’s a lot of footage to wade through. Gina and Diego can attest to that. They went over it all so far, though we’ve found a little more as time has gone on.”
“Ah. So this is really why you needed me. For the grunt work no one else wants to do.”
“Partly. And partly because, according to Gambol, you’re not half bad when it comes to spotting things. Even the smallest detail might help at this point.”
She sensed his frustration. “How long have you been on this?”
“Just a month. It doesn’t seem like much, but that’s already four weeks too many.” He paused, and his expression flattened. “One of my brothers is a doctor. Killing people whose job is to save lives rubs me the wrong way. We need to find this scumbag before they kill again.”
She nodded. She might not exactly like Rapp, but she couldn’t argue with his intent.
And while she waited for answers to her own separate investigation, she had nothing better to do than help catch a killer. Believing her uncle wouldn’t have given her name to Gambol if he didn’t trust the guy, she put her faith in him as well.
Time to get back to work and find the patterns that would give this dirtbag away.
Before they hurt someone else.
CHAPTER TEN
By New Year’s Eve,Jane calculated that she’d spent five days in front of the fun box, which had been misappropriately named.
Her eyes strained, dried from watching hours upon hours of video. Between getting up to speed on the victims, including the two EMTs, as well as perusing content from six different alleged crime scenes over and over again, she concluded that though Gambol seemed to think these were related, she saw no evidence to prove a connection.
The EMTs had definitely been murdered. Video footage proved someone had rammed the ambulance head-on, creating a fender bender mild enough the car had been drivable, allowing the perp to disappear afterward.
The shooter darted out after the impact, firing into the ambulance windshield. The EMTs abandoned their vehicle where the masked perpetrator forced them into the street and executed them. All from a good ten feet away.
Perfect shots. One to the head, then one to the heart for each man. Overkill. Part of a ritual, maybe?
