Page 51 of Patrick’s Seduction

“That’s clearly Cameron walking past this house. The street leads directly to the Presidio. The time tracks with when we think the jogger was attacked and killed.”

Patrick looked at the grainy image. “Can you zoom in a little?”

Eddie shook his head. “The more I zoom in, the grainier the picture will get. But facial recognition gives me an 87% chance that this is Cameron. Might not stand up in court, but it’s good enough for us. It’s not like that guy is ever gonna see the inside of a court, right?”

“Not if I can help it,” Patrick replied. “Good work, Eddie. That means we can tie him to the Presidio murder.”

He turned around and looked at Sebastian. “Anything on the dental records that supposedly identified the charred body from the car crash as Cameron?”

“Still working on that. I’m close,” Sebastian said. “But as we all know, dental records are easy to manipulate. Somebody only needed to change out some of the X-rays on the dentist’s database, and boom, the dead body is Cameron.”

“Okay, keep working on that.”

He looked around the room, where several others were on the phone: Nicholas, Benjamin, and Anita. Nicholas suddenly lifted his hand, as he finished his call and put down the receiver.

“Got something,” he said.

Eagerly, Patrick approached. “Yes?”

“I went through the reports of the two animal attacks in Marin County. There was a witness in one of them, who supposedly saw something on the day the hiker died, but the witness report is incomplete, and it looks like it was never followed up on after forensics established that the fatal injuries were inflicted by an animal.”

“I need to speak to that witness.”

Nicholas scribbled something on a piece of paper. “That’s Walter Banks, his property borders on that of the Gallagher family.”

Patrick took the piece of paper. “I’ll go and see him.”

“I’ll come with you,” Nicholas offered.

Patrick nodded. “Let’s go.”

Traffic was heavy on the 101 North, with rush hour starting in the mid-afternoon and not letting up until past seven o’clock. But crossing the Golden Gate Bridge was still the shortest way to get to Marin County, even though it took them almost an hour to reach Walter Banks’ residence, a ranch-style home on a lot of about four acres.

The building was old but looked well-maintained.

Patrick stopped the car and turned off the engine. He exited, while Nicholas did the same on the passenger side. He’d barely made two steps away from the car, when he perceived a movement on the front porch of the house. A shadowy figure stepped forward, though the person’s face still lay in the shadow. A human wouldn’t have been able to make out the man’s face, but Patrick’s vampire vision allowed him to see whom he was dealing with.

The man was in his 70s, his skin leathery, his remaining hair gray and scraggly. He wore casual work pants and a flannel shirt.

“Mr. Banks?” Patrick asked.

“Who wants to know?”

“I’m Patrick Woodford. I’m a private investigator, and this is my colleague, Nicholas Eisenberg. We’re here to ask you about what you witnessed a little over two months ago when a jogger was found dead in these woods.”

Faster than he expected, the old man turned and reached for something near the door, before pivoting and aiming a shotgun at him and Nicholas.

“I suggest you leave,” he warned them. “I’m a pretty good shot.”

Patrick showed his hands in surrender and saw from the corner of his eye that Nicholas did the same.

“We don’t mean you any harm. We only want to talk to you about what you saw.”

“You think you can intimidate me?” He spat on the floor. “Tell Gallagher I’m not gonna change my statement. I saw what I saw no matter how many goons he’s sending.”

Patrick exchanged a quick glance with Nicholas. The man’s hostile behavior and statement that he believed the Gallaghers had sent them to intimidate him, could only mean one thing: the Gallaghers didn’t want whatever Banks had seen to come to light.

“I can assure you that we’re not working for the Gallagher family,” Patrick stated calmly. “We’re here because we believe that these so-called animal attacks on the Gallaghers’ property weren’t mountain lion attacks. We suspect that the Gallaghers are involved somehow.”