“That’s a good idea, Miss Edwards,” Bella shot back as she exited Kara’s home office.
****
Bella rubbed her eyes and leaned back in the office chair. She was sitting in the audio-visual center of the detective’s division, which would better be described as a tiny office. She was painfully combing through hospital surveillance video from the night Collier Sanders was murder.
“Ugh!”
Bella frustrated grunt bounced off the walls in the tiny room. She was ready to give up and call it a night when something on the video caused her to move closer to the screen. Bella squinted at the footage of the hallway that led to Collier’s hospital room. She could make out what looked to be a nurse entering her victim’s room.
Bella looked at the time stamp, which indicated that it was 3:37 AM. But the early morning visit by a nurse wasn’t what got her attention. Nurses checking on patients in the middle of the night was common in any hospital. It was the fact that the nurse was wearing what looked like motorcycle boots that captured Bella’s attention.
The video wasn’t very clear, but the nurse appeared to be a slim and female. Her hair was dark, but she couldn’t see the nurses face. She seemed to be aware of the cameras and avoiding them.
The nurse entered Collier’s room. According to the video, she stayed for exactly four minutes before exiting and leaving in the opposite direction of the camera.
Bella pulled the disc out of the player and put it to the side. She wasn’t at all surprised that it only took four minutes to kill Collier. He was, after all, immobile. She slid in another disc, which was footage from the camera at the opposite end of the hall.
Bella barely blinked as she stared at the screen, looking for a good image of the woman who had entered Collier’s room. Once she found the only workable image, she pulled it from the DVD player and put it with the other CD. Bella leaned over and grabbed the office phone. She dialed the inter-department number for the video tech.
“Tech services. This is Bruce.”
“Bruce, it’s Bella Devereaux. How are you?”
Bella could hear Bruce blow out a frustrated breath through the receiver. He clearly wasn’t happy to hear from her. Bruce had started out courteous and helpful until Bella turned him down after he invited her to dinner.
“What can I do for you, Detective?” he asked in a bored tone.
“I caught a case with video. Can you see if you can clean it up for me?”
“I got a few jobs ahead of you. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get to you.”
Lies!
Bella was no fool. She knew that Bruce wasn’t doing shit in that office but eating and watching porn on his phone. “Bruce, this case is involving the man who shot Taylor Montgomery. It takes precedence.”
“Says who?” he asked arrogantly.
Bella groaned. Bruce was behaving like a child. Why couldn’t he just do his fucking job?
“I’ll tell you what, Bruce. I’ll just call the governor and tell him that you said fuck his fiancée.”
“Send it over!” Bruce snapped before hanging up on Bella.
Bella placed the phone on the receiver and shook her head. Taylor was a fellow police officer. She shouldn’t have had to drop the governor’s name to get Bruce to do his job. It’s a damn shame.
Men!
They were nothing but big-ass male babies.
