Page 46 of Heist

“They keep referencing my team casing the property, but I’m not sure what they mean by that. I don’t have a team and I certainly wasn’t casing anything.”

Austin sighed. “You told me Grant Sterling and an employee of yours were on hand to verify the authenticity of the diamonds correct? Could that be the team they were referring to?”

“Oh great. Now I’m in cahoots with Grant Sterling of all people?”

Austin shrugged. “I’m just spit balling. What else did they say?”

“They wouldn’t show me anything, but they made it sound like they have security footage of me on the property last night.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Hire me.”

“Hire. Me,” she said, enunciating each word.

“I have an attorney, Austin.”

“Does he have a New York license?”

Patrick paused. “Now that you mention it, I’m not sure.”

“So, hire me. You’re going to be charged in the state of New York if you get charged.”

The door burst open and two detectives walked in. Austin whirled from her spot, perched on the corner of the table to face them.

“Mr. Sutton, I see your attorney made it. Maybe now we can get started.”

“I’ve been here for forty-five minutes. You’re the one holding things up,” Austin said.

“You’re not the only people in the world with a schedule to keep. We’re here now so let’s get right to the point.”

The detective slapped a picture down on the desk in front of him. “Is this you, coming out the back of the museum?”

Patrick and Austin both studied the phone. It looked like him, and the timestamp said five-thirty last night.

“It certainly looks like me, but if it is, that timestamp is wrong. The last time I walked out the door was on Sunday.”

“The picture says otherwise, Mr. Sutton. Where are the diamonds?”

“I didn’t take any diamonds.”

“The evidence disputes that. According to your alibi, you were at dinner around this time last night, but this picture proves that to be false. Pictures don’t lie, Mr. Sutton.”

Patrick sighed. “Unless someone is trying to set me up.”

Austin put a hand on his shoulder. He needed to stop answering questions so freely. “My client was at a restaurant and there are multiple witnesses. This photo is grainy and circumstantial evidence at best. There’s no way you charge my client based on a low-resolution surveillance camera image.”

The detective leaned back in his chair. “No. We won’t be charging him based on that. We’ll be charging him when his fingerprints come back as a match to the ones we found in the vault.”

“But you don’t have a match, so we’re leaving.”

“Not to mention…”

“Not to mention anything, Patrick,” Austin chided.

Patrick sat back with a scowl. The police went round and round asking Patrick the same questions over and over again for the next two hours. Finally, Austin demanded that they charge him or let him leave. Since their fingerprints still hadn’t been processed, they had no choice but to let him walk. Once again, they urged him not to leave town.

When they left the precinct and climbed into the back of a car, Patrick said. “I was in the vault yesterday.”

Austin groaned. “Of course you were. And what did you touch?”

---