Page 163 of Hidden Tide
A leather chair.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
“Pause it,” Ben says.
Ivy stops the video.
“What do you see?” I ask.
“Peter’s computer is missing.”
Ivy looks closer. “He uses a laptop. He could have taken it with him.”
“What is that beside the desk?”
She enlarges the image.
A black power cord lies on the floor.
Its end has been cut.
Not unplugged.
Cut.
Marquez radios the officers still at the studio.
“Return to the gallery manager’s office. Process it as a possible crime scene.”
“What are you thinking?” Ward asks Ben.
“Elliot didn’t break into Ivy’s studio.”
“He was caught inside it,” Keating says.
“He entered through the private stairwell and went directly to the storage room. He didn’t force the exterior door.”
Ivy’s eyes widen.
“Peter let him in.”
“Or Elliot already had Peter’s keys.”
Marquez’s radio erupts with an officer’s voice.
“We found blood beneath the gallery manager’s desk.”
Ivy turns away from the monitor.
The officer continues.
“There are drag marks leading toward the freight elevator.”
“Check the elevator,” Marquez orders. “Then search the loading dock.”
The body-camera feed shakes as officers run through the gallery.
They reach the freight elevator.
