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I gritted my teeth. West obviously hadn’t calmed her before she came back down. She was spiraling, and I needed her back on task.
“The security feed from earlier tonight,” I reminded her. “Start at nine and work forward from there.”
“Right. On it.” She switched to a different recording, this time of a corridor—presumably the one outside Portia’s apartment. She fast-forwarded the footage, and we watched as someone left the apartment beside Portia’s and another person farther down the corridor returned home.
Around ten-thirty, a man dressed in dark clothes and a ski mask appeared from the door to the stairwell. He checked the unit numbers and stopped outside Portia’s apartment. He knocked, and then knocked again. He waited for several minutes, and when there was no response, he jimmied the lock open.
He wore gloves, and it was impossible to make out many details about him. Based on his height relative to the doorframe, I’d say he was less than six feet. When he glanced toward the camera, I caught a brief glimpse of the skin around his eyes.
“Rewind that and pause,” I ordered.
Kim did as I said, whimpering in the back of her throat and muttering under her breath once again about how bad this was.
I leaned closer. “He looks white, right?”
Kim blinked rapidly and tried to focus on the screen properly. “Yeah, I’d say so. He’s not black, anyway. Could be Asian or perhaps has some Hispanic heritage. It’s difficult to tell from just that tiny bit of skin.”
I grimaced. It wasn’t a lot, but at least it would allow us to begin narrowing the suspect pool. We were looking for a man, shorter than six feet, possibly Caucasian.
“I need to make a phone call. I’ll be just outside.” I left the room and closed the door behind me, then scrolled through my contacts and found Zeke’s number.
“What did your lying husband do now?” he grumbled after the call connected. “I was sleeping with a sexy redhead, dreaming very nice dreams.”
“Sorry for calling at this hour. I hope you left the room, so you didn’t wake her too.” I was well aware I was stretching the boundaries of our friendship, such as it was.
“Don’t worry. Fi is sleeping soundly. What’s up?” He sounded more alert by the second.
“I need a favor.” I hesitated to ask when I didn’t know what he might want in return, but this was an emergency.
“A favor for a favor.” The smirk in his voice came through clearly.
“Fine.” I explained the situation to him as best I could. “I need to know who took her, or anything that might lead us to her. Do you think you can help?”
“The apartment building has a security system?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I didn’t ask why he wanted to know, sensing that it would be best if I remained in the dark.
“Then I’ll do what I can. I’ll get back to you if I find anything.”
“Thanks, Zeke.” I ended the call and stepped back insidethe office. “I’m going to head up to the apartment. Do you feel safe here on your own?”
She nodded, even though she was more subdued than earlier. “The door has a really good locking mechanism. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay, but I’ll send an officer down as soon as the team arrives.” If the men who’d broken into Portia’s apartment hadn’t tried to take out the security system at the time, they probably weren’t interested in it now, but there was always a chance they’d want to destroy any evidence.
“Thanks.”
I backed out of the office again, turned, and squeaked, my heart leaping as I raised my gun at the figure immediately in front of me. I relaxed as recognition set in.
“Shit, Sewell. Don’t scare me like that. I could have shot you.”
He ducked his head sheepishly. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to. Thought you’d have heard me arrive.”
“I was distracted.” Damn, I had to pay better attention to my surroundings. “Did Dominguez send you?”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “She tried Hanson but couldn’t get an answer, so she asked me to partner with you on this one since… you know, I’m partnerless and all.”
Emotion flashed across his face, and I felt a pang for him. I hadn’t liked Neal, but he’d still been Sewell’s partner. It must be difficult to have lost him.
