Holgersen stopped on the stairs, regarded him. “Why?” he said slowly.
Maddocks inhaled deeply and dug his hands into his pockets. “Just ... wondering.”
“You guys broken up or something?”
“Taking a bit of a breather.”
Holgersen’s gaze locked with Maddocks’s, his features unreadable. He hesitated, then said, “Want me to check in on her?”
Maddocks snorted. “I wouldn’t mind knowing if she’s doing okay. Keeping busy with ... work and all.”
Holgersen nodded slowly. “Sure’s a thing, boss. I’ll call her in the morning.”
CHAPTER 19
“What do you mean, ‘the last ones are missing’?” Angie said as Daniel Mayang handed her a digital storage device over the counter. Daniel had said he could have some digital footage ready for her by 9:00 p.m. So after her visit to Sophie Sinovich Rosenblum’s house, Angie had grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the gym for another Muay Thai session with Chai Bui. Both to kill time until 9:00 p.m. and because she was unable to rest, to be still, for stillness turned her thoughts to her screwup with Maddocks.
He’d be back from his seminar by now, and Angie was antsy to get this investigation ball rolling. If she could nail this gig and find more like it, she could begin to see a way forward. In her life. And with Maddocks.
“I mean, the VHS tapes listed at the end of Rachel Hart’s inventory are missing,” Daniel said. “The ones you asked to have converted first—those tapes are not in the boxes you gave me.”
“The footage filmed of the campsite from afar on the final night of the river trip is gone?”
“I don’t know how many other ways I can say it, Angie—those tapes are not there.”
“Rachel said all the tapes were in boxes.”
“Hey, I can’t make them appear, okay?They are not there.”
Frustration clipped at Angie. She reached into her pocket for her cell. It was just after 9:00 p.m.—not too late to call the Hart residence.
Doug answered, and Angie cut right to the chase. “Can I speak with Rachel? I’m having her tapes digitized, and the final footage from the trip is missing.”
Rachel came onto the phone. “What is it?” Her tone was sharp.
Angie explained that the last three tapes listed on her inventory had not been in the boxes Doug had handed over. “Were they perhaps misplaced? Could you look for them? I can come by tomorrow and collect them. I need to see those last hours in camp.”
“You don’tneedto see anything. Youwantto see it. Critical difference there, Angie. You’re making money off me and the judge with this investigation. Just keep that in focus. You’re not a police officer, and I’m not at your beck and call. I’m under no obligation to even talk to you. Even if you were law enforcement, you’d need a warrant to force any of us to cooperate and dredge up all those awful memories.”
Angie shot a glance at Daniel, who was watching her intently from his side of the counter. She turned her back on him and lowered her voice, her heart beating a steady, angry drum in her chest. Her shortness of temper, her frustration with Rachel, had more to do with her situation with Maddocks than these missing tapes. Angie needed to rein herself in if she wanted to make this damn PI gig work. She had to learn to be nice in order to get what she wanted because her days of waving search warrants were over.
“My apologies, Rachel,” she said more quietly. She smoothed her hand over her hair, marshaling her composure. “That was uncalled for. I’m very grateful for your help. Justice Monaghan is grateful, too. Anything you can give us that will help lay Jasmine Gulati’s memory to rest and allow her grandmother some peace will be appreciated. I was just wondering if there might still be another box of tapes in your crawl space, something Doug perhaps missed. Or if those final tapes somehow ended up outside the boxes and are lying loose down there.”
“No. There is nothing more in our crawl space. I went down there myself after you left. Doug gave you everything.”
“Any idea what might have happened to that final footage, then?” she prompted gently.
“I’m sorry. I really don’t know. Those tapes have been down in storage for almost a quarter of a century. Things might have been mislaid or thrown away in error. I really am sorry,” she said again.
“It’s okay. I appreciate your help.”
Angie hung up and swore softly. She slipped the external drive into her pocket, wondering if Rachel was lying and, if so, why. Or it could be a totally innocent misplacement, but it just further piqued Angie’s curiosity to see them.
“Thanks, Dan, seems they’ve vanished into thin air. Is it okay if I settle with you when I pick up the rest tomorrow?”
“No problem, Ange, but one more thing. While I managed to convert those first three cassettes on your list, I’m not sure I’ll have the same luck with the rest. The quality of the others has been compromised to various degrees. Judging by old watermarks on the sides of the storage boxes, the tapes have likely seen water damage.”
“You mean ... these first few might be all there is?”
