“I think I’ve got some footage,” she said as Morgan took aseat, too.
Stephen Gunderson sat up.He was still in his uniform andlooked bored with the process.“I told you.I showed her the aisle she waslooking for and then I went to check out a customer.”
“Good.Then you’ll have a receipt for the time we’re talkingabout,” Morgan said, her face an impassive mask.“Ruby, you can look that up,right?Stephen, let me introduce you to Ruby Lockwood.She’s a privateinvestigator and excellent with a keyboard.”
For the first time restless energy stirred around themanager.“I don’t have some fancy system.”
Ruby didn’t look his way, simply kept staring at her laptopscreen as she typed.“You use an inventory system that’s tied into thepoint-of-sale system.Old but reliable.Also easy to slip into.You didn’tregister a sale for the fifteen minutes before or after we think Olivia wastaken.”
He frowned as though figuring out this wasn’t going to be aseasy as he thought it would be.“You can’t do that.”
“Of course I can,” Ruby replied simply.“I have a warrantand everything.”
Garrett had been busy.So had Jack Barnes.He’d told Jackexactly what they legally needed to ensure the evidence they found would holdup.Jack had made some calls, and Ruby was now a consultant and Morgan had herwarrants.
“Morgan put out BOLOs on Jessica Fellows and Martin Gladen,”Keane said, his eyes still on the two-way mirror and the view it offered them.“You identifying that watch worked wonders.Ruby managed to figure out only ahundred were sold in the US, and only a couple in Dallas, including to MartinGladen.
“Good.I assume they’ve put out something about Olivia.”They were keeping each other calm.It was easier now that they were physicallytogether.
“Yes, but they could be anywhere by now,” Keane repliedflatly.“They could be on their way to Dallas or Austin, or they could head forthe Louisiana border.”
It was frightening to think how easily she could disappear.“How could they plan for this?They couldn’t have known where she would be thismorning.”
“Unless they put a tracker on her cell phone,” Keane saidwith quiet certainty.“That’s why they shoved it into the truck we weredriving.It wasn’t to set us up.That was a bonus.I bet Gladen shoved it intothe car because he wanted to be able to track her.Hell, maybe they’ve beentracking her for a while now.They could have done it at any time when weweren’t looking.”
“I don’t know anything,” Stephen swore.
Ruby turned her laptop around, showing him the screen.“Youdon’t know this woman?She walked into your store five minutes after Oliviadid.See.You waved to her.Or were you telling her where to find Olivia?”
Stephen’s face turned a florid red.“That’s Jess.We went toschool together.Of course, I know her.Know her way better than Olivia sinceshe was too rich and fancy to think about attending a public school.”
Keane growled a little.“They bullied her.Of course shedidn’t want to go to school with them.”
“They’ll use any excuse to hurt her.If she had gone toschool with them, it would have been something else,” Garrett muttered underhis breath.
“And do you always greet your friends by gesturing them tothe back of the store?”Morgan asked.
“I wasn’t telling her to go anywhere,” Stephen saidunconvincingly.“I was waving.”
“He’s lying.He’s got a tell beyond that flushed face ofhis.”Garrett had done well with jury selection before he’d dedicated himselfto corporate work.“His left eye twitches.”
Keane nodded.“He was definitely in on it.Maybe he calledJessica when she came in.”
Ruby looked up from her system.“I find it interesting thatyour back cameras went offline around the same time Jessica entered.Is thatwhat you’re doing with the computer?”
“I was checking on inventory,” Stephen said, his eyetwitching again.
“Well, the good news is I have a car registered to a mannamed Martin Gladen seen at a stoplight roughly ten minutes after Jessicaentered that store.We have pictures and everything,” Ruby said, changing thescreen.“That’s your friend in the passenger seat.She’s coming from yourgeneral direction.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Stephen protested.“She couldhave come from anywhere.”
Ruby’s head tilted.There was something predatory about thewoman.“Tell me something.How many doors do you have?Not back doors.I needto know how customers enter and leave your building.”
He seemed to sense this was a trap, but he couldn’t figureout why.At least that was the way Garrett saw it.
“Just one.We’re not some big-box store with a bunch offancy sliding doors.We only have the one.”
“I think she has him,” Garrett said.He knew when someonewas about to pull out a piece of evidence that would make a courtroom gasp.
