With a fresh glass of O negative mixed with Scotch, Mick set down at his desk in front of Max and James, the two vamp photographers. Josef had made himself at home on the vintage upholstered sofa in the corner, typing methodically on his BlackBerry. Mick addressed the boys, " Tell me the whole story, from beginning to end. Leave no detail out."
"Well, after Dean disappeared, James and I stole his computer, you know, to make sure nothing of interest would be discovered. He kept these particular photos on a flash drive. We noticed it was missing when we returned home from capturing photos for a job for BuzzWire. It could have fallen out of my pack and anyone could have picked it up! But I do remember Deans buddies hanging around. I think they may have known who we were and what we had found."
"Where were you when it was taken?"
"Around the clubbing district, I guess".
"Did any of you know his "buddies" personally?"
"No, we had just seen them all together socially or at meetings."
"I was on my way over to a friends house to get some information regarding another case so, I will see what I can dig up on this while I'm there. Thank you for bringing this to my attention."
Logan was in his basement playing Rockband, when Mick and Josef showed up about an hour later. He is rocking out to Led Zepplen when Mick reaches out and tugs on one of the various cords snaking their way to Logans gigantic SafeStrip. The TV screen goes black, and Logan rips around to see Mick smiling daringly at him. "Hey, I was just about to reach a high score! I mean, higher then my average, dude!"
"Calm down Logan, you have eternity to make it up!"
"I have other things to do ya' know! I do have the ladies to attend to."
"I'll bet", Josef scoffs giving way to a barrage of giggles from both him and Mick.
"I DO!" Logan retorts.
"Okay, I'm sorry. Logan, we need your help again." Mick says, recovering from his cackling fit.
Logan is still pissed by their rude introduction and just extends his hand for the generous tip Mick usually brings him. Mick hands him 2 bills and Logan sets down at his main computer. "What can I do for ya'?"
"First we need you to pull up some footage from a few security cameras around the city. Can you give us footage from the security cameras outside the DA's office and also from inside the building?" Logan clicks a few buttons and brings up a few documents, which he opens to reveal footage from a security camera located in the parking garage that belonged to the DA's office.
"Anything inside the building is password protected, and extremely case sensitive. It's going to take a while for me to hack their system".
"Show us what you've got, then keep working at cracking it".
Logan clicks on one of the videos, and it pops up on screen. It begins playing a view of the departments employees getting out of their cars for a long days work. "take us to later in the evening", Mick intructs.
The tape speeds forward to about 9:00 in the PM. Only a few cars seen previously are still there. A few minutes into the frames a black Camero pulls into a parking space. Someone climbs out of the drivers seat in a black suit and a black sun hat on. Their face is never seen on the screen, making it harder to tell whether they were male or female. The person is carrying a folder, the silver lettering on which glints in the light from the emergency sign above the door to the DA's office. "We've got them! Who ever sent that list came to the office to hand deliver it." Mick exclaims. The person on the screen disappears into the elevator.
"We need to see inside that building. Logan, good job buddy! Now, go back a few frames, I want to see if they were wearing anything that may be used to identify them." As the tape zips backward, Mick notices a flash from a ring worn on the suspects finger. "Stop, zoom in on their right hand." Mick see's before him a ring that is oddly familiar, startling, in fact. The ring their mystery person was wearing, was the same emblem that Coraline had tattoed on her back.
Mick tries to disguise his shock and horror at the reappearance of his ex-wife, or anything related to her. "Do you recognize it?", Logan asks. Mick glances at Josef, who is white knuckling the desk as he lean forward to examine the ring. They both know who the mystery person might be connected to, but they didn't want to let this new fact deter them from their other reason for being there.
"No, I don't. Logan, can you also get us some footage from the clubbing district?", Mick answers. Logan goes to work at pulling up a few pieces of footage. Josef and Mick share a few quick glances at each other, each making mental notes to kill Coraline when they caught up to her.