Page 57 of Benjamin and the Thief

“Any other footage from the same camera. It would give me more data points to analyze,” he said.

“There is another video from the same camera,” Benjamin said. “My dad has a copy of it. Let me ask him to email it to me.”

He picked up the phone and dialed his father’s office, knowing that he would have returned there by now. He could see Catalina’s anxious expression. It was clear that her encounter with Amaury made her worry he wouldn’t support what they were doing. She couldn’t be more wrong. Nobody in his extended Scanguards family would undermine one of them when it came to family. And since Catalina would soon be part of the family, her brother, Santiago, would be too.

“Yeah?”

“Dad, the video the Prestons sent you, can you please email it to me?”

“Consider it done.”

“Thanks.”

He ended the call. A few seconds later, a ping sounded, and he opened the email directly on the tablet, then saved the attachment his father had sent. He tapped on it to play, and Sebastian watched. When it stopped, Sebastian’s gaze ping-ponged from him to Catalina.

“Do I need to know what this is about?”

Catalina cleared her throat. “The video with me and Benjamin is real. It happened. I tried to break into the Prestons’ safe to prove that my brother never stole that necklace.”

Sebastian pointed to the screen. “So, this guy is your brother? And I’m assuming you want to know if the video with him in it is fake?”

“Exactly,” she replied.

He nodded, then looked at Benjamin. “I guess you want the results sooner rather than later?”

“You’ve got it,” Benjamin confirmed.

“Okay, talk later,” Sebastian said and left the office.

Alone with Catalina again, Benjamin pulled her into his arms. She molded her body to his, and it felt good to have her close.

“I’m sorry you had to deal with Zane. He’s an acquired taste.”

“Is he really Nicholas’s father? How old is Nicholas?”

He knew where she was going with her questions. Zane looked far too young to have a son in his thirties. Not that Nicholas looked like he was in his early thirties, because he too had stopped aging at the age of twenty-one. How much longer would he have to lie to her about who he and his friends and family really were? But right now wasn’t the right time to make such a confession. He had to sit her down for it and take his time explaining what it all meant. It had to wait.

“Yes, Zane is his father.”

“That’s impossible. He’s too young.” She shook her head, her forehead furrowed.

He shrugged. “What can I tell you?”

“Let me guess: good genes?”

“Maybe his work is keeping him young,” Benjamin lied. “Which reminds me: we need to look into the Prestons.”

“And look for what?”

He was glad that his change of subject had directed Catalina’s thoughts away from why he wasn’t the only one who had a young-looking father.

“Anything that gives them a reason why they would have framed your brother for the theft of the necklace,” he said.

For a moment, he thought that Catalina hadn’t heard him, because she simply stared at him as if she was looking through him. Then suddenly, her eyes focused again.

“The necklace was insured. But you can’t just call the insurance and say it was stolen or lost. You need a police report… and, even better, a guilty party.” She blinked. “Maybe the Prestons needed money.”

“Then why not sell the necklace?” Benjamin asked. “At an auction, they might have gotten more than what the insurance paid out. And there would have been less scrutiny too, less publicity. Why would they willingly put themselves in the public eye if this was about money?”