“My contact is already working on getting that.”
“Make this meeting happen, and I’ll let you come with me to interview the officer.” A slow smile spread across her face.
Evan nodded, and if he didn’t hear back from Neighbors within the hour, Evan would follow up. He would also do just about anything to make Kiley’s dazzling smile land on him again. But more important, he desperately wanted to catch these terrorists.
CHAPTER 18
THE CONTEMPORARYBUILDING HOUSINGthe Tacoma Police Central Substation was smaller than Kiley expected, but all that mattered was that Evan secured an appointment with the sector-one commander. She could give them access to Officer Pilcher, and Kiley was overjoyed at finally acting on a lead and hopefully moving the investigation forward.
Lieutenant Gail Singer met them at the door to her neat office painted a cheerful yellow. Her blond hair was cut short, and the department’s navy-blue uniform fit her tall and slender body perfectly. She gestured at the chairs by her desk as she circled around behind it.
Evan took a spot leaning against the wall and grabbed his phone for those copious notes he liked to take.
Kiley wished she could look so relaxed, but the pressure to succeed still pressed down on her, and she was too amped to sit. She planted her hands on the chair back instead. “I’d like to get right to our reason for being here.”
“Pilcher.” Singer flattened her palms on the desktop. “I’ve got him on standby in the conference room.”
Kiley was glad to see the lieutenant had the same sense of urgency about this interview. “I’d like to see the body-cam footage before meeting with him.”
Singer dropped into her chair and started typing on her keyboard. She squinted at the monitor, her forehead furrowed. “That’s odd.”
Kiley didn’t like that look. “What’s wrong?”
Singer raised her head, her expression puzzled. “The footage isn’t here.”
“Not there.” Kiley charged around the desk and scanned the screen.
“The video for the call before he encountered the men you’re interested in is right here.” Singer tapped the screen, then ran her finger down to the next file. “And this is the call after. So you can see he uploaded his footage, but the one you want must have been deleted. I don’t know how that could happen.”
“Several possibilities,” Kiley said, and she didn’t like any of them. “Body-cams have vulnerabilities that allow a hacker to access footage directly from the camera. They can download it or make changes and re-upload it, and we wouldn’t know about their changes. They could also delete footage. Or your server could have been hacked and the file deleted that way.”
Singer frowned. “You’d have to have some strong hacking skills to do any of that, right?”
Kiley nodded but didn’t explain that if their suspects were connected to Waleed, they would very likely have those abilities.
Evan pushed off the wall, his focus razor-sharp now. “Could be simpler. Someone in-house could’ve deleted it, or even Pilcher could’ve done so.”
Singer shook her head. “If Pilcher uploaded that particular file to the server, there’s no way he had access to it. And he would be put under review if he deleted it.”
Kiley didn’t want to waste precious time speculating. She wanted to act. “Give my team access to your network files, and we’ll tell you where the modification came from. Depending on when the file was uploaded and when your department runs backups, we might be able to produce the video from a backup.”
Singer pursed her lips. “I’ll need to get approval for that.”
“Then do it. Now. And we’ll interview Pilcher.” Not givingSinger time to ponder her options, Kiley stepped to the door. “Where will we find him?”
“Last door on the left,” she said, sounding dejected. Either her spirit of cooperation was sagging, or she was worried about the deleted file.
Kiley left the office and hurried down the hallway, which reeked of burnt popcorn.
Evan caught up to her. “What’s your take on the deleted file? Inside or outside job?”
“I’m leaning toward our suspects doing it. I can’t see anyone in-house with a reason to delete the file. And as Singer suggested, Pilcher would be in big trouble if he did.”
“Your team can really find out who did it?” he asked.
“We can track all changes to server files. Doesn’t mean we’ll be able to trace it to the source’s location, though. If someone had the skills to hack the server, they’d also know how to bounce their connection through enough hubs that we might never find the end.”
Evan shook his head. “Gotta love the internet, but man, it’s made law-enforcement work so much harder.”
