Page 100 of Born a Billionaire

THIRTY-TWO

The fact that The Snack Shop owner had kept security camera footage for longer than three months was a miracle. Oliver had always trusted his instincts when it came to unsavory characters, and this Tony guy gave him a bad feeling he could not ignore.

“Come on back,” the owner said as he led them down a hallway to his office. “We’ve had a few break-ins these past couple of years, so I had the cameras installed. I don’t know if that’s the reason we haven’t had any more problems with that, but it doesn’t hurt, right?”

“Very smart,” Carmen said.

“You said you have footage stored on a hard drive,” Oliver said.

“Yes. The files are date and time-stamped, so you should be able to find the dates you want”—he opened a folder on his computer’s desktop—“right here.” He stood up and gave Oliver access.

“Thank you. This is very helpful.”

The man stood to the side while Oliver brought up the footage from the night back in October when Adelia had first come into town. The same night he had been called by Gus because someone was outside the cottage.

“There are two feeds, one for each of the cameras, and you can scroll through the footage here.” The man showed him what to click to speed up the playback.

The first camera angle was from behind the checkout, a tight shot without much view of the store, facing down at the customers’ faces and the back of the cashier’s head.

“Who was working that night?” Carmen asked.

The man stepped closer to look at the screen. “That looks like Cyrus. Cyrus Mason.”

Oliver and Carmen exchanged looks.

He scrolled ahead and found the video of Adelia checking out with her snacks. But she was alone. So, he switched to the second camera footage, which was from a corner of the store with a wide-angle view of the entrance, the checkout, and down the length of the far aisle. Customer after customer came in the door, but it didn’t give a good shot of their face unless they turned toward the camera.

Several men entered over the course of the hour before Adelia arrived at the store. One had a straight shot of his face, and Carmen took a shot of the screen with her phone. But he looked a little old to be their guy.

Then Adelia entered the store. She turned and faced the camera then made her way down an aisle that wasn’t visible on camera. Oliver slowly moved forward in the video until she made her way to the checkout and left the store.

Oliver groaned. “I thought maybe we’d see her talking to the guy.”

“Wait.” Carmen pointed to the screen. From the right of the checkout, a man inched into the shot, then came to stand in front of the cashier. He set something on the counter, held up a finger, then headed out the door after Adelia, never giving a clear shot of his face. “Maybe he followed her.”

Less than a minute later, he came back into the store and returned to the checkout. He stayed there for quite a while, his back to them, talking to Cyrus until both nodded, they fist-bumped, and then as the man went to leave, he turned his head toward the camera.

Oliver’s heart skipped a beat, and he leaned closer, squinting to see better, unsure if his eyes were playing tricks on him. He shook his head.

“What is it?” Carmen asked.

He switched back to the other camera footage and scrolled ahead to after Adelia had left the store. The man stepped into clear view, and Oliver’s stomach dropped like a lead weight.

Carmen gasped. “No way.”

Oliver yanked his phone from his pocket and dialed Adelia. “Come on, Addy. Answer your phone.” It rang and rang then went to voicemail, and Oliver felt panicked and immediately dialed again. “Please answer. Please answer.”

Voicemail again.

“Dang it! I need to get to her.”

“Let’s go,” Carmen declared. “Thanks for all your help,” she told the owner.

“You’re welcome.”

They darted out of the building to their police cruiser.

Oliver was shaking, and Carmen laid her hand on his arm. “Take a breath. I’m sure she’s fine.”

“If anything happens to her, I swear, I will kill him with my bare hands.”

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