Page 109 of Bone’s Choice

Dave tipped his head to the side. “Officially?”

“Yeah.”

“Nothing,” Dave sighed.

Dealer stopped pacing. “What does that mean?”

Dave shifted on the screen. “It means there wasn’t a service call that night.”

I frowned. “You said Northline had him there.”

“They did. Eight days before his wife reported him missing. That was the work order I found before.”

“But not this?” Hose questioned.

Dave shook his head. “Nope.”

I sat back. “So Mercer was there but he shouldn’t have been.”

“Looks that way.”

“Why?”

“If I knew that, we could all stop watching the same thirty seconds of footage,” Dave chuckled.

Taco leaned toward the laptop. “What happens after the camera goes black?”

“Nothing.”

He frowned. “Nothing?”

“Camera stays down for seventeen minutes and thirty-eight seconds.”

Myth looked at me.

“What happened during those seventeen minutes?” I asked.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out.” Dave clicked something.

The frozen image disappeared. Another camera feed came up. Different angle with the same timestamp. “This one’s on the other side of the facility.”

We watched.

A semi sat backed against a loading dock.

Two box trucks were parked farther down.

Nothing moved.

Then headlights appeared at the far edge of the screen. A vehicle drove into view.

Dark van with no markings and no windows along the sides. It moved slowly through the yard.

“Plate?” Bull asked.

“Can’t read it.”

“Can you clean it up?” I asked.