Page 37 of Forged in Secrets

“Oh, shut up,” she said, laughing as she started toward the boardwalk, half dragging him behind her. “We need to get back to the Mistflower. We need to see that security footage.”

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

GRACE

Grace felt Ben’s elbow jabbing into her ribcage as they crowded around the monitor.

“Sorry,” he whispered as the Mistflower Resort security guard tapped away at the keyboard, as though the man was deep in concentration and couldn’t be disturbed.

Compared to the spacious, beautiful rooms surrounding it, the security office was small and dingy, and clearly not meant for more than one occupant at a time. Grace wondered how the resort could possibly keep the sprawling complex safe with what was clearly a very small team, especially during busy seasons like spring break.

“Here we go,” Patrick said at last, reaching over to click the mouse. “And don’t tell anyone I showed you. This is against protocol.”

Ben nodded. “Not a word.”

Grace leaned closer to the screen, which incidentallymeant letting her body press against Ben’s. She didn’t mind.

On the screen was a plain hallway, identical to their own floor, but she recognized the number on the door plate. It was Katie and Jade’s room, all right, and the timestamp at the bottom of the screen indicated that it was ten in the morning.

A few seconds later, the girls appeared on the screen, both smiling as they said something to one another. Grace made a mental note of the black Eagles t-shirt that Katie Fairman wore, which contrasted with her pale blonde hair.

She swallowed the unexpected tears that threatened to fall as she watched her friend walking across the screen without a care in the world. There was no time to get sentimental or worry. Katie needed her to be on her A-game.

Still, she was comforted by the way that Ben studied the image intently, searching the girls’ relaxed body language for some clue they had missed before.

“Now, you’ll see there’s a big fat nothing for most of the tape,” Patrick said, tapping another key. The timestamp on the bottom of the screen began to speed up. Though there was no sign of either of the girls, at least a dozen other people passed through the space, all of them college students save for one housekeeper who showed up around seven o’clock.

A few seconds later, Patrick reached out and pressed another button.

“As I told the police and as you can see here, there’s nothing for most of the day. Detective Hayles said that they tracked most of their movements outside of the resort.”

Ben nodded, not pulling his eyes away from the footage now playing at normal speed.

“Anyway, we see Jade come back from dinner right around now.”

They all watched as the seconds ticked by. It was around ten-thirty and, so far, Jade’s story was holding up just fine.

They watched as Jade walked into the frame, wearing the pink minidress she’d worn when she left the room the first time. She was alone, and from what Grace could tell on the small screen, her expression looked neutral. Jade slid her room key through the door’s lock and went inside, closing it behind her, and the hallway was empty once more.

Grace listened as Patrick’s fingers clicked across the keyboard, stealing a glance at Ben. He didn’t even catch her gaze. He was too busy staring at the screen, deep in his own thoughts.

The time on the screen sped up again. Several more girls wandered through the frame, giggling together as they made their way out of their hotel rooms, probably headed to the party on the beach. At eleven fifty-three, Patrick slowed the footage.

“Here we go,” he said, getting up and gesturing toward his open chair. Grace stepped back, letting Ben have the seat. She may have been the one to realize that they needed to see the footage, but this was definitely Ben’s domain.

A few seconds later, the hotel room door swung open on screen, and Jade emerged. Her pink dress was gone, replaced with a navy blue long sleeved shirt, black leggings, and sneakers.

“Hmm. Why the outfit change?” Ben mused aloud. “I doubt it was much cooler on Monday night than it is now.”

Grace smiled, glad that Ben was noticing the details that Detective Hayles would have almost certainly missed. Unfortunately, after thinking about it for a minute, she wasn’t convinced it was a clue.

“She’d already been back at the hotel for over an hour, and that dress looked really tight. She might have just grabbed something comfortable.”

Ben pressed his fist against his forehead, watching as Jade walked away, leaving the hallway empty again. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

They watched for a few more minutes, this time with Ben fast-forwarding the footage as Patrick leaned against the wall near the door. Jade returned a little after three in the morning, looking the same as she had when she’d left. Ben tapped a key and hit pause, leaving Jade frozen on the screen in front of the door.

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