CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Someone moved that camera remotely, I’m telling you,” Cami insisted to Connor as they climbed into his car.
Connor looked at her dubiously. “Surely it could have been the camera monitoring company? Or the security firm? Wouldn’t they do that if they saw a camera out of place? Log in and move it back?”
“Would they really?” Cami flashed back at him. “Surely a security firm can’t go moving cameras just because they feel like it? The customer must tell them where they want the cameras pointed, right? Wouldn’t they check with the customer first?”
Connor shrugged. “We can ask them, but if it wasn’t them, and it was someone else, we’re none the wiser. But I’ll put it on the list. The to-do list.”
Cami acknowledged that hacking into a smart device was hard enough. Hacking in and finding who had been there earlier might be possible, but it would potentially take days. It definitely wouldn’t be easy to follow a digital footprint that was so many steps removed.
“Is that where we’re going now, to work on it?” Cami asked. They didn’t seem to be heading in the direction of the FBI offices as they turned down a side road, driving toward downtown.
“No. We’re going to check into a hotel that we use when we’ve got an urgent case on the go.”
“Why?”
“It makes it easier. Cuts out the travel time. Using a hotel ensures we can keep working for as long as it takes before getting some rest.”
He turned right, and a minute later, drove into the basement parking of a hotel. It was a standard, good, business hotel, Cami saw. One of a chain conveniently located a few minutes away from the FBI offices, and with a restaurant and a few fast-food outlets down the street.
“There’s a twenty-four-hour kiosk in the hotel. They sell everything you might need, and if they don’t, there’s an all-night grocery store down the road. Here’s some spending money. You can order room service.” He handed her a couple of twenty-dollar bills. “We might have an early start, so be prepared. Do what you need tonight when we turn in, whether it’s eat, wash clothes, whatever.”
He led the way to the elevator. They rode up and Connor checked in. The place was quietly efficient, with standardized decor and a number of guests who seemed mainly to be business travelers.
Connor handed Cami her key card.
“I’m going to go down to the lounge and review the case files. I don’t need you to help. This is my job. For now, get some food and get some rest. I need you functional tomorrow.”
Cami stared at him, feeling rebellion flare inside her again.
“Why shouldn’t I help? I could call the security company and find out about the camera.”
“You need to be an authorized FBI agent to get that information. They won’t release it to just anybody. So, you’d need me for that, and I’m too busy. There’s too much else to do that can get us further. I might not be an IT specialist, but I can tell you now, that’s going to end up being a dead end and a waste of time. And you can’t go around hacking into suspects’ devices at random, either.”
“I can,” Cami muttered under her breath. She resented that Connor wasn’t taking her, or her idea, seriously.
“Go and get something to eat.”
Feeling angry now that she was being blocked at every turn, Cami turned and marched away. She headed to the elevator and rode upstairs to her room, number 823. She noticed that Connor had booked the room right next door. Perhaps that was because he still didn’t trust her.
She opened the door and stepped into the sterile, neat, featureless space.
Realizing that she was, in fact, starving, she picked up the phone and ordered herself a burger and Coke. Then she plugged her phone in to charge, and sat down on the bed, deciding to wait for her food before she did anything else.
But almost immediately, there was a tap on the door.
Wondering if this was Connor coming to bother her again, she stood up and headed over to it.
She opened the door, and to her surprise, found herself face-to-face with a fit looking, dark-haired man who looked to be in his mid-twenties. He had an open, honest, and strong face, sort of like an adult Boy Scout, she decided.
He stared at her in surprise. “Sorry. Got the wrong room. I was looking for Connor.”
She saw he was holding a kit bag containing some electronics and equipment.
“He’s checked in next door, but he’s working in the hotel lounge right now,” Cami said. Seeing that this man clearly knew Connor’s name, and that the two rooms were allocated to FBI, she guessed he must be FBI also, and not hotel management.
“Do you work with him?” she asked.