She blinks, startled. “Okay?”
“Okay. You saw something. Someone. And we’re going to figure out what happened.” I pull out my phone. “I’m going to get the mall footage and we’ll review it together. Then we’ll know for sure.”
Relief floods her expression, like she was braced for me to call her crazy and to dismiss her entirely.
I reach over and take her hand. Her fingers are ice cold.
“I believe you,” I tell her sincerely, squeezing her hand as I see her release a shaky breath. And I do. I believeher. I’m just not sure yet if I believe what she saw was real.
But I’m going to find out.
The footage arrives an hour after we get home.
Every screen on my desk in my office displays different camera angles from the mall. Vera sits beside me, her hand wrapped around a cup of tea that’s long gone cold.
“There.” She points at one of the screens. “That’s where I was standing when I saw him. The boutique is?—”
“I see it.” I’m already pulling up the camera that would have had the best angle on that location. Time stamp—11:23 a.m. Right when Vera said she saw him.
I hit play.
The footage shows the mall corridor from a high angle. Shoppers moving in and out of frame. And there?—
There’s Vera. Standing completely still, staring at something off-screen. I can see myself beside her, trying to get her attention.
I pan the camera angle to follow her line of sight.
And my heart stops.
Because there, standing in front of the boutique window exactly where Vera said, is a man in a baseball cap and gray jacket.
I zoom in.
The image pixelates slightly, but the features are clear enough. Tall. Lean. The right build. Blond hair visible beneath the hat. He’s standing with his weight on one leg, hands in his pockets.
Just like Alexei used to stand.
“That’s him,” Vera whispers beside me. “That’s who I saw.”
I track the figure as he moves. He casually turns and walks toward the west wing. And as he walks, I notice something that makes my blood run cold.
He knows exactly where the cameras are.
He angles his body to minimize exposure and keeps his head down at precise moments. He takes routes that keep him in blind spots.
The pattern is too deliberate to be accidental. This person has studied the mall’s security layout and knows how to move through it without being fully captured.
Just like Alexei would have known how to do.
Alexei who knew the security of our family’s operations. Who learned camera placements and blind spots and surveillance patterns because of me.
No.
This is impossible. I’m seeing patterns because I’m looking for them because Vera planted the idea in my head. I track the figure all the way to the parking garage and watch him disappear into a blind spot near the east exit. Then he’s gone.
I sit back in my chair, my mind racing.
There are reasonable explanations for this, there has to be. Someone who looks like Alexei. A coincidence of build and coloring and the way shadows fall. Vera’s mind filling in details that weren’t really there.
