Page 9 of Silent Road

But she could hear the strain in his voice, the way he was trying to hide his pain.He'd been shot less than forty-eight hours ago, for goodness' sake.He needed to focus on healing, not on solving cases.

"You need to rest, not work cases from your hospital bed," she finally said.

"Come on, Sheila.I'm going stir-crazy here.They won't even let me walk to the bathroom without supervision."

She smiled despite herself.Classic Finn, hating to be sidelined."Doctor's orders.Besides, I've got help."

"Yeah?Who're you working with?"

"Tommy Forster.He's actually doing pretty well with this one."

The silence that followed felt heavy.She could picture Finn in his hospital bed, jaw clenching slightly the way it did when he was trying not to show what he was feeling.

"Forster?"he finally said."The rookie?"

"Is that a problem?"

"No, no problem."But she knew him too well to miss the forced casualness in his voice."Just...be careful, okay?He's still green."

"Finn..."

"I should go.Physical therapy in ten minutes."

"I'll try to stop by later," she said, hating how inadequate the words felt.

"Sure.If you're not too busy."

The line went dead before she could respond.Sheila stared at her phone, her chest tight with a mixture of guilt and frustration.She should have visited him this morning.Should have called, at least.Instead, she'd thrown herself into the case, just like she always did.

And now she'd mentioned Tommy, which clearly bothered Finn more than he wanted to admit.She couldn't blame him.Being stuck in that hospital bed while she worked cases with someone else—especially someone young and eager to prove himself—had to be difficult.

But she couldn't deal with that right now.She had a killer to catch.

Taking a deep breath, she headed back into the security office, where Michael was showing Tommy footage from other cameras.

"I think we've seen all we can from the footage," Tommy said, stifling a yawn.

"Not yet."Sheila leaned closer to the screens."Michael, can you pull up earlier footage?Let's start with yesterday morning."

"That's a lot of footage to review," Tommy said carefully.

"Sometimes the most important details show up hours before the crime," Sheila said, not taking her eyes off the monitors."People argue.Make threats.Create motives."

Michael nodded approvingly as his fingers moved across the keyboard."Starting at 7 AM—that's when the lifts opened yesterday."

They watched the morning crowd filter in, the usual mix of families and serious skiers hitting the slopes early.Greenwald appeared on several cameras throughout the morning, taking photos just as Rachel Caffrey had described.

"Wait," Sheila said suddenly."Go back.Camera four, around 9:30."

Michael rewound the footage.There—at the edge of the frame, they could see Greenwald gesturing animatedly at someone.The other person was mostly out of frame, but Sheila caught a flash of distinctive red and black ski pants with a geometric pattern.

"Can you clean that up at all?"she asked.

Michael worked his magic with the footage, enhancing and stabilizing the image.The argument became clearer—Greenwald pointing at something, the other person's hands raised in obvious frustration.

"Those ski pants," Michael said, his voice tight."I know exactly who that is.Diana Pierce."

"Another instructor?"Tommy asked.

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