"Let's start with the stairwells" Neil suggested.
"There are four of them" Winnie replied.
"I'll pull up the north tower first."
"That's on North Broadway" she added.
"Each file covers a six-hour span. This one begins at six o'clock on the evening of the fifteenth."
"Can you fast forward to seven thirty or so?" he asked. "The restaurant reservations were at eight pm."
Winnie grabbed the scrub bar at the bottom of the video clip and scrolled to the right, the images on the screen flashing as she did so. She stopped as the timestamp displayed 7:26.
"Is there any way to not watch in real time? This would take two hours alone just to view when she got here."
"How good are your eyes?" asked Winnie. "I can run it 2 times or 4 times speed."
"Let's start with 2 times" suggested the detective.
For the next fifteen minutes he focused on the screen as the black and white images of parking patrons jumped quickly before him on the twenty-four-inch monitor.
"That's 8:02" she said. "Nothing?" she inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"No."
"Well then, let's move clockwise. If they were headed to Irenia's then they either used the north tower or the east tower. That's on 5th."
She clicked on another file and the video clip loaded and flickered on screen.
"Same as before?" she asked as she scrubbed to the familiar timestamp.
"Yes, please" he responded.
The video began to play.
As the screen passed the 7:48 mark a long, lithesome woman in a tight-fitting evening low cut dress, sweater over her left arm, flashed in sequences on screen as she descended the stairs.
"Stop" yelled Neil. Then catching himself added "please."
Winnie smiled to herself. She had determined his character correctly.
"Can you scroll back a little?"
"Scrub is the term" said Winnie. "Sure thing."
The video rewound to 7:42, just as the respectable two-inch pumps entered the viewing area of the monitor.
"That's one of them" noted the private eye. He watched the entirety of her descent passed the screen, remembering the moment he first saw her draw herself out of the Miata, wondering 'How the hell did someone that long fit into a car that small?'.
"Is there..."he began.
"...any way to print out a screen grab?" She pressed a button and the HP Inkjet sprang to life.
"Continue?" she prompted.
"Yes. Let's stay with the same stairwell. Good call" he added.
At the 7:53 mark the visage of Maria Fiorello Campana came into view. First the six-inch fuck me's followed by the same fit, tight, compact figure that he'd met only days before at his motel room door. Same clothes.
"That's the other woman" he said.
Winnie rewound and replayed, capturing and printing a second screen image.
"So they came down from the roof" she stated. "That's where they parked".
"Do you..."
"...have any surveillance cameras up there?" she completed his question. "Oh yeah."
YOU ARE READING
Neil Knight Private Dick
Mystery / ThrillerHe's relaxing in a hotel with his two dogs and a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon when she knocks on his door looking for help. For the next two months he connects with a hip hop record producer, a genius hillbilly coder and his MBA stripper wife...
