“Have a seat. What can I do for you, Harrison?”
“For starters I’d like to have a look at that security footage you have of Jenna and me at the rec center.”
“That’s a little kinky, isn’t it? Or is that what you’re into?”
“I don’t blame you for thinking I’m an asshole. But I’ve just come across some information you might find interesting. Both personally and professionally.”
“Oh yeah?”
“We Gotcha, Inc, the company that does video surveillance for the city, is owned by a guy named Stuart Malloy.”
“I already know that. I talked to him Friday morning.”
Ben faltered a second. “In person?”
Zeke frowned. “No, we emailed actually.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Why?”
“My assistant, Gavin Porter, has been trying to buy We Gotcha for the past few days. At first, Malloy said he didn’t want to sell, but Gavin was persistent. Eventually we offered twice what the company was worth.”
“That doesn’t seem to make good business sense to me.”
Lying to Zeke Grant wasn’t going to help his cause, so he came clean. “I didn’t care what it cost, I just wanted to buy the company so I could get my hands on that video footage and make it go away.”
“Got it.” He thought he saw a gleam of admiration in the other man’s eyes.
“Yeah, well, Malloy still wasn’t interested. Then we find out he’s decided to disband his company with the excuse that he wants to spend more time with his family. It makes no sense. Why disband a company for nothing when you can still get rid of it and make a big profit? By the way, Malloy never returns any of his phone calls. He works strictly off of email.”
“Go on,” Zeke said sounding more interested.
“So my man Gavin did some more digging around. There is no Stuart Malloy, and the IP address from the computer he uses comes from a house in Mexico Beach. Vince Palermo’s house to be exact.”
Zeke rubbed his jaw with his hand. “I looked you up, you know. Everyone who knows you says you’re a good guy. And your foundation does some damn good work. But if you’re saying what I think you’re saying, then you better be certain here.”
“There’s only one way I’ll know for sure.”
“What’s that?”
“I need to see that footage.”
Zeke thought over it, then logged into his computer. “What’s the time frame?”
“Between eleven and eleven thirty p.m.”
He tapped the keys and turned the screen to Ben, so that he could view it in private. “There you go.”
Ben let out a pent-up breath and steadied himself. If he was wrong, then he was about to see himself in action. But he had a strong feeling that he wasn’t wrong about this.
Just as he thought, the video was on the dark side. The footage showed empty hallways, the building, even a random armadillo walking down one of the pathways. He watched as the camera angles changed. More empty hallways. More…
He turned the computer screen around to show Zeke what he’d found. Zeke looked at the screen, then at the time on top of the frame. “So?”
“Wait for it,” Ben said.
Zeke watched patiently. Ben knew the exact moment that Zeke saw it because his face screwed up in disgust. “Son of a bitch.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
A pounding sound startled her awake. What time was it? Jenna felt around the bedside table for her cell phone. She found it on the floor next to her bed. It was almost two in the morning. What in the world? Now it was the doorbell. She threw a sweatshirt over her PJs. “Coming!”