“Honor’s Edge is looking into it,” Cal told the officer.
Mathews made a derisive sort of huff.“Your funeral.”
Cal considered the drawing.Well, itmightbe.
Sam and Nate approached.
“Since you two are chit-chatting, I assume no one got inside?”Sam said by way of greeting.
“Doors were both still locked when I came down,” Cal told her.“You see anything, Mathews?”
The cop sneered.“No.Seems like a false alarm, Sam, but if you see anything on your security footage, you let me know.”He gestured at the drawing in Cal’s hand.“If you want real cops to investigate, you’re going to want to share the details of the first threat with us.”
“Of course, Brian,” Sam said, laying on the saccharine way too thick.“I’ll be sure to share everything with Detective Hayes when he starts his investigation.”
This clearly pissed Mathews off, because he simply turned on a heel and stalked back to his cruiser without another word.
“I hate that guy,” Cal muttered.
“You hid itreallywell,” Sam told him, laying on the sarcasm extraordinarily thick.
Cal looked down at her.“What’s your excuse for not hiding it?”
Sam shrugged.“He deserves it.Come on.It’s freezing out here.”She pushed inside, and Nate followed, so Cal did too.
“I’ll see about beefing up my security,” Sam said in her usual brusque way.
Nate was inspecting the door while Sam headed into the main office room.
Cal followed her.“Send me the bill.”
“It’s my building,” she replied, sitting down at her desk.
Cal hadn’t realized she was carrying her laptop.She set it on the desk and opened it.
Cal held up the drawing between her gaze and the computer screen.“It’smythreat.”
She waved the drawing away like it was nothing, typing a few things into her computer.Clearly pulling up the security footage.
“If you didn’t find anything the first time, you’re not going to find anything this time,” Cal told her.
“It set off the alarms this time.”But as they both watched—and Nate came in from the back room—nothing showed up at the back door to determine who left the envelope.A few potential shadows, but nothing they could even confirm was human.
“They must be keeping out of the camera view by moving in against the wall, then just stretching out and sticking the envelope like this.”She demonstrated the contortions she thought the threatener was going through.“I think you can just see the edge of the sleeve right here,” she said, pausing her video footage and pointing at something that was a smudge at best.
“Speaks to knowing our security system,” Nate added.
Sam nodded but Cal shook his head.
“Or just someone who knows how camera angles work,” he pointed out.
“Let me see it,” Nate said briskly.
Cal wanted to crumple the drawing up and throw it away out of spite, but he still hadn’t fully worked around how he felt about another threat.One could be a prank… one was easy enough to pretend didn’t matter and not worry overmuch if someone enacted it.Technically, everyone’s days were numbered to some extent.
Maybe there was a littledeath wishin all that, but he could ignore it.When it came totwothreats, if he held onto the possibility it didn’t matter, it was like admitting to everyone around him he didn’t care about his life.
Which was a day-to-day, moment-to-moment carousel he’d rather not let anyone else in on.
