Page 60 of Made of Steele
She crossed the space to a neat desk in the corner and settled into a black ergonomic chair. She sent a text then woke her computer, the monitor displaying a video file. “This is the only file on the drive. It could lend credence to Smiley having died on his property.”
She clicked play.
“No. No.” Smiley faced the camera in his living room, his face contorted in fear as he backed away. The camera caught the tip of a shiny silver sword pointed in his direction. “Let me try again. I’ll do better this time. Honest.”
“Run for your life,” the person filming the scene said in an altered voice. “I’m right behind you.”
The video went dark. A shiver ran over Drew’s body.
Teagan wrapped her arms around her stomach. “That’s awful.”
Drew agreed, but he would watch it over and over again to find a solid lead. “Run it one more time.”
Sierra clicked play, but the clip lasted for only thirty-six seconds and there was nothing obvious other than the sword.
Drew gritted his teeth and tried to wrap his head around what it must’ve been like to be Smiley, the other man waving a large sword at him and telling him to run for his life. Fleeing outside. Being tracked. Horrific. “He was hunted like an animal.”
Sierra looked up, her expression troubled. “Looks like it.”
Teagan’s hands were clutched in tight balls on the table. “This helps confirm Kelsey’s finding that Smiley was likely killed with a sword. Were there prints on the flash drive that can help in the investigation?”
Sierra shook her head. “Which is why I think the killer wore gloves and dropped it.”
“Dropped it,” Drew said. “But why wouldn’t he come back for it?”
Sierra leaned back and crossed her leg. “He might have for all we know and couldn’t find it. Like I said, we located it wedged in a floor vent. Maybe he didn’t think to lift the vent like we did. He might’ve thought the video couldn’t incriminate him.”
The door clicked open, and Nick strode in. Drew gave the guy who’d been helping them for days a thorough once over. He didn’t look like the computer geek that Drew had expected. The man was built, around six feet tall, and had brown hair and a matching close-cut beard. He strode across the room.
“Good to see you again, Teagan.” He smiled at her but thrust out his hand to Drew. “Nick Thorn.”
“Drew Collier. ICE.” He shook hands. “Thanks for joining us.”
“I wish I had additional updates on the searches I’m running for you but nothing yet. We’ll keep them running, and we’re bound to turn something up.” He leaned against the table behind him and crossed his feet at the ankles. “I added the local Catholic church and the circle and sword to my search, but nothing relevant on either of them yet.”
“Thanks for all your help.” Teagan cast a thankful look at Nick. “We appreciate you taking this on so quickly, and your information has been instrumental to get us to where we are in the investigation.”
Nick planted his hands on the table behind him. “Looks like it’s a good thing we got started when we did. What with four victims and all.”
“We were looking at the video found at the crime scene,” Drew said. “I can’t see how it’ll help yet. Unless we can unscramble the voice.”
“I can improve the quality some, but it won’t clean up enough to use for voice recognition.” Nick moved his hands to rest on his hips. “But I did recover metadata on the file. I know it was shot on an iPhone on August 18, 2016 at 8:07 p.m.”
“Could fit Smiley’s time of death but otherwise, how will it help?” Drew asked. “The killer could very well have gotten a new phone by now.”
“You’re probably right,” Nick said. “But they could still have the old one and not use it.”
“I keep at least the last model when I upgrade,” Teagan said.
“Me too,” Sierra said. “And I know from our forensic property searches that it’s not uncommon to find old phones stashed in a drawer or cupboard.”
“Yeah.” Nick groaned. “I waste a whole lot of time imaging them only to find nothing to help.”
“Question,” Teagan said. “If the video was found on a flash drive, how did that come from a phone?”
“You just need the right kind of connector for the phone to access a flash drive. Or the suspect could’ve connected to his computer to move it to a drive, though I didn’t see that transfer protocol in the file.”
“No computer in the house.” Sierra leaned back. “But he could’ve brought a laptop with him or Smiley’s computer was removed after he died.”
