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Hez winced at the mention of the package. That was the last thing he wanted Beckett to hear. He had to do some fast damage control and get her off the phone. “There won’t be a package. Sorry. I, uh, misplaced the materials I was going to send you.”
Surprise and disappointment mixed in her voice. “You did?”
“Yeah, I did. Hey, I’d love to chat, but it’s been a rough couple of days and I was just about to head out for a run.”
She was silent for several seconds. “You know, we used to go running together after work. Want to knock out a five-miler? Slowpoke buys coffee and beignets at Petit Charms.”
She’d picked up on his hint. “That would be great. I’ll meet you in half an hour outside your office.”
Chapter 39
Savannah stuffed the stack of papers into her briefcase and motioned for Simon to follow her from the classroom.
“Are you chuffed? You’re smiling.”
She nodded. “I texted Hez to meet us at the beach.”
She didn’t dare say more. Hez had warned her he’d found a bug in his light, and she didn’t want Beckett to realize they might have some evidence after all. No one would overhear them at the waterfront.
Simon chattered all the way to the beach. When they walked toward the water, she spotted Hez. He lifted a hand in greeting when they neared. His eyes were red rimmed and shadowed.
“Headache?” she asked.
He nodded. “Comes and goes in intensity.”
She checked her impulse to embrace him, and her longing for him only increased her awareness of how much she didn’t want the divorce. Once this was over, she would tell him how she felt.
He glanced around. “I checked on the security footage you asked about. My computer expert still had a copy, and I brought it.”
Simon was listening with rapt attention, but she didn’t dare let him out of their sight. He was as vested in getting his mother out of jail as they were. “Jess’s fleece is the key.”
His frown was an obvious attempt to follow her through the pain of his headache. “The one with blood on it?”
She stepped close enough to catch a whiff of his familiar cologne. “It was always in her office. The HVAC worked overtime right over her desk. She wouldn’t have worn it outside into the heat and humidity. It had to have been stolen from her office.”
“And the security footage might show it.”
“Exactly.” She gestured to a nearby bench on an empty beachside bike path. “Let’s take a look.”
The three of them moved to the bench overlooking the waves, and Hez sat between Simon and her. She leaned against him, relishing his warmth and closeness on the lonely winter beach. “It will take some time to review all of the footage.” He pulled out his laptop and launched the file.
She leaned against him. “I’d guess someone stole it the night before we found Abernathy. Events unrolled quickly, and I think Beckett was boxed in and had to act fast to throw suspicion onto Jess.”
Hez nodded and fast-forwarded through the video to 7:00 p.m. the night before Abernathy was murdered. “I’ll run it at double speed, and we can pause it if there’s any movement. This footage comes from a camera on the backside of the office building.”
They watched in silence for half an hour as the camera picked up a rabbit and then a dog nosing through the shrubbery. The camera’s time showed 12:02 a.m. when Savannah saw another movement, this one a figure. “Stop.”
Hez paused the video and zoomed in to get a better view. “I can’t make out his face with that hood over it.”
“Me neither. Go forward slowly.” The footage went frame by frame, and they watched the man enter the door with a key. He exited six minutes later, and this time the camera caught a good picture of his legs. He was wearing shorts.
“He’s got something in his hand!” Hez froze the screen again and enlarged the picture. “Do you recognize it?”
Savannah clutched his arm. “It’s her fleece. You can see the Goldman Sachs emblem. And look at the man’s leg. Beckett has a scar like that on his knee. It has to be him.”
Hez exhaled. “We’ve got him.”
“I don’t think so.” A figure stepped from the shadows. Beckett’s grim stare was punctuated by the gun in his hand. The barrel pointed at Simon’s chest. “All of you get up. Slowly. No sudden moves or Simon is dead.”
