I kicked the door shut and sank into the wheeled chair at the end of the desk closest to me. “A couple of things, actually. First off, could you check the surveillance footage for the east side of the house?”
Gideon’s hands paused over the keyboard. He gave me a longer, analytical look. “What for?”
“Someone left a dead cat on the lawn across from my bedroom window,” I said. “The one that used to be connected to the tail that was stuck to my window almost a week ago, it looks like. I’m hoping the cameras will show who did it.”
A hint of something more intense sparked in Gideon’s eyes. He frowned and swiveled back toward his computer. “They should have. Pretty much every inch of the outside property is covered by those cameras.”
He brought up a few feeds on different monitors and rewound them all at the same time. We quickly spotted Kaige, Anthea, Rowan and me gathered around the spot. The camera showed a clear view of the area all around the cat—there was no way someone could have dropped it there without coming into view.
Gideon flicked his tongue over his lip ring in a way that momentarily distracted me from our quest. “Let’s see… The last patrol in that area would have been two and a half hours ago, so if we go back through that whole time frame, we should—”
He cut himself off, pausing the video. He’d rewound to the spot where one of the Noble men was clearly visible ambling along in his circuit of the grounds. I hadn’t noticed anyone on the video before then.
“Is the cat already there and he just didn’t notice?” I asked.
Gideon squinted at the screen and zoomed it in. “No. It’s not there yet.” He sounded puzzled and a little annoyed. “It didn’t appear out of nowhere. They must have just been really fast. If I go forward through the footage a little more slowly…”
He fast-forwarded, and we both peered at the screen. Nothing much changed other than the leaves on the one tree in frame swaying with the breeze. Then—out of nowhere, despite what he’d said—suddenly there was a dark shape in the grass.
Gideon’s mouth tightened. Without saying a word, he rewound and played the footage at that spot again, this time flipping through it what appeared to be frame by frame.
I hadn’t seen wrong. One moment, the lawn was empty. The next, there was the cat. And no sign of anyone near it.
“What the fuck?” I said, leaning forward as if looking closer would change anything.
Gideon frowned and flipped back and forth through the footage there a couple of times. Then he swore.
“What?” I demanded.
He motioned to the tree. “Watch the leaves. Damn it. I never thought—fucking damn it.”
He sounded so frustrated I didn’t dare ask anything else, just watched.
The footage played, the branches swayed in the breeze—and then they seemed to give a slight hitch as if there’d been a hiccup in the recording.
I blinked. “Someone… cut out part of the footage?”
“Something like that,” Gideon said, his voice now taut. “No one could have messed with the actual footage after it’d been recorded. I have that system perfectly secure with multiple backups. But the cameras are digital. They send the feed to the hard drive over the network. My best guess is, whoever did it was able to briefly interrupt that signal.”
“That’s possible?”
“Yes. Almost impossible to avoid unless you hardwire all the cameras, which Ezra didn’t want because then they can be interfered with physically.” Gideon sighed. “Most people don’t know how or have the tech to do it. And they must have moved fast so that no one would notice anything more than a website taking a little longer than usual to load.”
His hands clenched. “I’ll tell Ezra to increase the on-the-ground patrols. And that we’ll need to add a few cameras with full wiring so we’re covered in both ways. I should have insisted on that to begin with.”
His obvious agitation sent a twinge through my chest. I’d seen how much he prided himself in his thoroughness. “It isn’t your fault. I get the impression Ezra doesn’t listen to much of anyone other than himself anyway.”
Gideon’s gaze jerked to me as if he was startled to hear anyone talk about the big boss so flippantly. Then his stance relaxed just a tad. “You might have a point there. Still, it’s an oversight that obviously needs to be rectified now.” He glanced at the time. “Or early tomorrow morning. Ezra won’t be happy if I disturb him this late. I suppose it’s unlikely this person will strike again in the same day. Maybe you should switch rooms, though. Just in case.”
Was he actually… concerned for my safety? I guessed he had seemed a little relieved to find me safe and sound the other day.
“Good point,” I said. “I’m not going to bed just yet, though. I did also want to ask if you’ve made any progress figuring out how we can strike at Colt. I’m especially enthusiastic about getting on with that now, since he’s the only one I can think of who’d have much motive to be leaving me bloody presents.”
A pleased gleam came into Gideon’s eyes, and a small smile curled his lips. Oh, good, at least I’d given him one thing he was happy to talk about.
“I’ve made significant progress, actually,” he said. “I’m still sifting through the data so that I have as accurate a picture as possible, but I’ve already seen clear evidence that the Steel Knights are going to receive a shipment that’s very important to them soon.”
“A shipment we could interrupt,” I said with a smile of my own. “Sounds perfect.”