Chapter 15
"What time is it?" Munch asked. He was slumped over the lab table where he'd been watching TARU tech Morales try to scan through the footage from the traffic camera. The security cameras at the gas station had been a bust. None of them pointed toward the dumpsters because who would want to be stealing garbage after all.
"Half past I should have been in bed four hours ago," Fin heaved a sigh as he walked over from the computer that TARU had let him borrow to view the bank security videos.
"Find anything?" Morales asked without looking away from the footage he was reviewing. The problem was they only had a time window in which Melinda believed the body had been dead which meant they had to check a large time window without any witnesses to say they saw someone dump Charles Cray in between the dumpsters. Since it was a dump job, they didn't have anything else to go on and Elliot was with Kenny at the precinct still sifting through the private investigator records. They had eliminated a few but still six men remained on their list.
"The ATM is on the corner of the building. What I got was the street so that one was no help but the one that sits above the ATM pans so we get a glimpse of the dumpster every few seconds but I haven't found anything in the window. Shouldn't I have at least seen something?" Fin wondered. Morales stopped what he was doing and gave him a look.
"Munch take over for me. Fin show me what you mean," the tech said. The detective nodded and walked back over to the computer screen.
"See the time stamp is within the window but I searched the whole time frame and we didn't even get a shot of the body after it was dumped," Fin explained. Morales leaned in closer to the screen.
"The shadows are off," after he stared at the screen for what seemed an eternity.
"You think someone doctored the tape?" The detective asked. Munch heard this and abandoned the computer he'd been looking at.
"No, I think someone got sloppy and didn't follow daylight savings time," Morales said as the elder detective moved over to them.
"Which means we have our window!" Munch was almost giddy.
"It does. Fin cue it up at the end of the time window you were watching. Our guy has to be in this hour," the tech said. Fin nodded and quickly fast forwarded to where he'd left off. The three crowded around the screen watching for something, anything, which would lead to the alpha of the criminal pair.
"You need some more coffee?" Kenny asked. Both he and Elliot had been trying to narrow the list of private investigators down.
"I don't think coffee will work anymore. I've passed the point of exhaustion and the only thing left in my veins is coffee," Elliot rubbed his eyes with his good hand, wishing that his injured arm would be healed already, no matter how ridiculous the thought was.
"Then maybe it's time you caught some sleep in the cribs. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if IAB tries to swing by in a few hours," the younger detective said.
"We gotta catch this guy," Elliot told him.
"He's killed his partner. Either he's on the run already or he's lying low. He knows we're onto him and he has to be careful. Besides, we can't narrow down the list of guys until Fin and Munch get the tapes sorted," Kenny pointed out. Elliot nodded and was about to take his suggestion when the Captain walked out of his office.
"What's going on?" Kenny asked, noticing the look on Cragen's face.
"Munch and Fin have something," Don told them.
"Shouldn't that be a good thing?" Elliot raised an eyebrow.
"The taillight on the car was punched out and there was a hand waving out of it. They've issued an APB but we're hours behind the video," Cragen delivered the news.
To Be Continued…