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A short, balding man with an enormous midsection met them in the lobby of the small gift shop just past the ticket counter. He shook their hands, and Faith resisted the urge to wipe the sweat off on her pants.
The man mopped sweat from his brow with a handkerchief and introduced himself as Grant Brower, the director of the garden. “I’ll show you the scene,” he said. “It’s been cleaned already, but it’s still roped off.”
“Can you tell me about what happened?” Faith asked.
Brower sighed. “Well, we got a call from a Miss Cassidy Holt four days ago. She said she was a graphic designer and wanted to take some pictures of the garden at night for a project.”
“Did she mention who her client was?”
“No. She just said a project. The garden is closed at night, but we frequently allow individuals or small groups after hours if they call ahead. We told her she could have four hours to take as many pictures as she wanted but stressed that she couldn’t touch any of the plants. She arrived, the four hours passed, and my night security manager realized that she hadn’t left. He began looking for her to tell her it was time to go home. He found her ina small clearing near our Alpine Forest exhibit. She was… well, you saw the pictures, I’m sure.”
“So she was killed on the grounds, and no one heard anything?”
"She didn't make any noise. I reviewed the security cameras too. There were no alerts and no screaming. Also, just so I get ahead of the question, the cameras show all of our employees at all times. They weren't responsible for the murder."
“They show your employees, but not Cassidy Holt or her killer?”
“They show Cassidy every now and then?”
“Every now and then?”
He reddened a little. “Well, we don’t have cameras covering every square inch of the garden. It hasn’t been necessary. Nothing happens here. Not even gift shop theft. People who visit botanical gardens aren’t the criminal type. The worst we’ve dealt with are a few hippies picking flowers.”
“Let’s save the excuses,” Faith said. “When’s the last time Cassidy Holt was seen alive?”
“About ten-thirty. That’s about forty minutes before she was found dead.”
“And you saw no one else leave the garden until the head of security found her?”
“No one. No strangers, no unauthorized entry, none of my employees.”
He stepped in front of a roped off section in front of a stand of towering spruce trees. “This is where she was found. Up until about ninety yards back, we have cameras.”
“Is there a way to get inside the park and get here without being seen by cameras?” Michael asked.
Brower sighed. “Yes. You would have to climb a fence, but it’s not electric or razor wire or anything. It’s… we never thought anything like this would happen.”
“Tell me how you would do it.”
Brower pointed east. In the distance, Faith could see a high fence made of iron or steel. It would be a challenging climb, but not very challenging. She could scale it easily.
“You go from there, then you cut north until you’re on the other side of the lily pond. Then you hug the pond for ten yards. Go behind the willow trees and loop south through the eucalyptus, then it’s a gentle zigzag.”
“Which of your employees would know about that path.”
Brower lowered his eyes. “Well… I don’t know, but you wouldn’t have to work here to figure it out.”
Faith lifted an eyebrow, and Brower pointed to a few poles with very visible cameras pointed at very visible angles toward the ground. “I imagine you could figure out how to avoid them if you paid attention,” Brower said.
“Probably,” Faith agreed.
She looked at the roped-off section. It looked spotless to her, but Turk sniffed around curiously.
“You get something, boy?” she asked.
Turk sniffed around a moment longer, then trotted to Faith. He looked around as though something drifted just on the edge of his senses, but after another moment, he gave up trying to find it.
"I'm really sorry," Brower said. "We never imagined someone would get hurt here. We'll beef up our security procedures and get better cameras." He looked forlornly at the roped-off section. "I guess we're too late for Cassidy, though."
