Линси Сэндс - Meant to Be Immortal [calibre]

“She’s mentioned you,” CJ told her, wondering why the woman was there.

“Yes, well, we’ve been best friends since high school. I’m retired now, but used to work with computers,” she added as she sat back and eyed her portable, waiting for it to load. “Always loved computers and gadgets. Have them all over my house. Alexa, the Nest, security cameras,” she rattled off, and then met her gaze firmly. “It’s the footage from my security cameras you’ll be interested in.”

CJ raised her eyebrows with intrigue at that. “Do tell?”

“Nope. You have to see it,” Joan said firmly, and then began to tap on the portable’s keyboard . . . entering the password to log in to the computer, CJ realized when she leaned forward to get a look at the screen. She just caught a glimpse of the dark screen with the password box and then Joan hit Enter and it disappeared, revealing a mountain range background with blue files littering the screen and a dock filled with icons.

“Here we go,” Joan said, running her finger around the trackpad and clicking on something. A moment later, she grunted with satisfaction and then turned her computer so they could all see the frozen scene of an empty street at night. She explained, “The incident with Officer Jefferson and those two young boys took place on the road right in front of my house. Unfortunately, I was asleep when it happened so didn’t witness anything. But my security cameras did, and they have night vision,” she announced with satisfaction. As she tapped the trackpad to start the video, she told them, “This is just before the boys’ car comes on-screen.”

For a moment, CJ didn’t think it was playing, but then the nose of a car came into view, followed by the rest of the car. It wasn’t moving very fast.

“Mark definitely wasn’t speeding,” Captain Dupree said grimly as they watched.

The car was about three-quarters of the way across the image when a police car came on-screen from the opposite direction and swerved into the first car’s path, cutting it off. There was no sound on this footage, but CJ was pretty sure that if there had been, she’d hear squealing tires as Mark Loop brought his car to an abrupt halt. She didn’t know how he’d managed to stop in time to prevent an accident.

“The boy must have stood on those brakes,” Dupree said with a shake of the head as they watched a man get out of the police car and approach the other vehicle.

“Is that Jefferson?” CJ asked. She’d never met the man so had no idea if the tall, thin man with what appeared to be dark hair was the man she’d been trying to interview for weeks.

“Yes,” Dupree answered, and they fell silent as they watched Jefferson bypass the window Mark Loop was rolling down and walk to the back of the vehicle. He paused several feet behind the old Chrysler and surveyed the back end, then stepped forward, whipped his baton out of his belt, and smashed the back right light.

“Son of a bitch,” Dupree growled.

CJ didn’t comment; she simply watched Jefferson strut back to the driver’s side window. She knew he must be talking to Mark Loop, or more likely the teen was cussing him out for smashing his taillight, but he wasn’t moving and she couldn’t see movement inside the vehicle, and then Jefferson struck like a snake, throwing his fist into the car and presumably punching Mark Loop in the face. Then both hands went in and when they came out they were wrapped around Mark Loop’s neck. Jefferson dragged the teenager out of the car like he weighed nothing at all. He then slammed him against the side of the car and started hammering on him with both fists. He did that until the kid started to slide to the ground, and then he had to use one hand to hold him up while he continued to pound on him with the other.

CJ felt Mac’s hand close over hers on the table and realized that she’d clenched her fists, but she didn’t ease her fingers and relax. Her eyes were glued to the screen as helpless rage poured through her. She wanted to jump through the screen and stop Jefferson, but the beating was long over with and both young men were in the hospital. She would guess that the driver, Mark Loop, was the one in the coma. He was obviously unconscious on-screen, yet Jefferson was holding him up by his arm and continuing to slam his fist into the boy’s head.

“Here comes Mike,” Dupree said as they watched another young man run around the back of the car and charge on Jefferson. He jumped on his back like a monkey jumping on a tree trunk and wrapped his arm around his throat, but when that had no effect, he slid off of him and punched him in the side. The kidneys, she recalled someone mentioning.

That got Jefferson’s attention. Dropping Mark Loop like he was garbage, he turned on Mike and started laying into him, punching him in the head and upper chest until the younger man stumbled back and collapsed to the ground. Much to CJ’s relief, Jefferson didn’t continue wailing on the unconscious young men. He just stood there for a minute. It looked to her like he was trying to catch his breath and then he turned and slammed his own head into Mark Loop’s car once, and then again. He raised a hand to feel his forehead as he turned to look from one boy to the other, and then reached for his radio and began to speak into it.

CJ sat back, finally allowing her fingers to unclench. She turned the hand Mac held so that she could hold him back, and squeezed gently in appreciation of the silent support.

“He doesn’t do anything after that of much interest,” Joan told them as she stopped the video. “He smokes a cigarette, gives Mark another kick or two, and then the ambulance arrives.” Joan glanced at Captain Dupree and added, “You showed up a couple minutes after the ambulance.”

Dupree nodded. “I’ll need that footage.”

Joan promptly held up two USB sticks. “I made copies for both of you.”

Dupree took the one she held out to him, asking, “Does it have everything on it?”

“Everything including an hour before and an hour after,” Joan assured him. She passed CJ the other USB stick with a wry grin and admitted, “I wasn’t sure how much you’d need so I overdid it as usual.”

“Better safe than sorry,” CJ responded as she accepted the USB stick, and then added solemnly, “Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” Joan assured her as she shut down her portable. “I’m just glad my tech obsession might come in useful for a change.”

CJ smiled and then shifted her gaze to Laurie as the waitress arrived at their table. “What can I get you, Miss Joan?” she asked, and then told her, “I was going to come over sooner, but you all seemed busy with something and I didn’t want to intrude.”

“No worries, Laurie,” Joan assured her, closing her computer and sliding out of the booth. “I don’t need anything. I’m not staying. I just stopped in to show Ms. Cummings something. Now I have to go back to the bed-and-breakfast and show Millie.”

“Now, Joan, that’s evidence,” Captain Dupree said with irritation. “You can’t go around showing it to everyone.”

“I won’t,” she assured him. “Just Millie. I promised,” she added with a wry grin. “I stopped there first looking for Ms. Cummings and she directed me here. In return, I promised to go back for tea and show her the video.”

Captain Dupree scowled and opened his mouth, probably to threaten to take her computer away, but Joan was no one’s fool. She was already bustling away, the portable tucked under her arm.

Dupree heaved an exasperated sigh as he watched her go, then shifted out of the booth as well. “I need to call into the office and put out an APB on Steve. Then I want to go check the road where Keith Kaye was stopped. If he smashed the taillight there like he did Mark Loop’s car, there should be a couple of pieces left at least. It was on a rural route and there are no sewers for the rain to wash them down,” he added, and then asked, “Do you still want to interview him?”