Death at the Summit by Nikki Haverstock Read Free Book Online Page A

head.
    Orion came down the hallway. “Is everything okay? Can I help?”
    “Yes, you can.” Brian stepped forward. “No one can leave yet. Can you do that?”
    Orion nodded. “Sure thing.” He jogged off and passed Liam in the hallway.
    Liam came up, placed a hand on my shoulder, and leaned over to whisper, “What’s wrong?”
    I turned to him with a frown. “Mac was killed. Orion is making sure no one leaves.”
    Everything I said today seemed to annoy Liam. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he removed his hand from my shoulder.
    Brian interrupted us before I could ask what was wrong. “Di, can you lock up this area and show me the surveillance footage? No officer can come out here yet because there’s a huge accident on the interstate. I need to start the investigation.”
    Brian sent Liam out somewhere while Mary and I followed him to the office, locking the doors as we left. In my office, I pulled up the footage of the hallway. Mary and Brian hovered behind me as we watched the sped up footage of me coming down the hallway and opening the bathroom, then we checked that everyone who went down the hallway returned. When we got to the footage of Moo and me escorting Mac down the hallway, I played the footage at normal speed.
    “Brian, are we looking for anything in particular?”
    “Let’s see it once, and then I will tell you.”
    It turned out that while the door to the room wasn’t visible, Moo was. I could see Moo’s tail wagging through the thirty seconds it took me to open the door for Mac and return into view.
    We raced through the rest of the footage. Brian carefully noted the timecode when someone disappeared from view into the short hallway and returned. When Moo and I appeared on camera to check on Mac, I was surprised to see that I only spent a few seconds out of sight at the doorway before reappearing on camera. I thought I had stood at the doorway forever, trying to work up the guts to turn on the light and see why I smelled so much blood. A pang of guilt ran through me——Mac had suffered some tragedy, and I was too chicken to even look. Maybe one dead body in a lifetime was all I could handle.
    “Should I have gone into the room? Is there something I could have done to help him?” I wanted Brian to tell me that I had done the right thing.
    “No, you should not have gone in there. You made the right choice.”
    “What happened to him?” Mary asked.
    “You don’t need to know that. I know that last time you two did an impression of Miss Marple and Columbo but this time—”
    I cut him off. “Wait, which one am I? The old lady or the one with a bad eye?”
    Brian didn’t laugh. “I’m serious. You cannot look at video surveillance again, and you cannot go back the crime scene. Tell me that you understand.”
    Mary and I exchanged a glance.
    “If you find anything, you need to give it to me right away. And lastly, I cannot see you investigating. Got it? If I see you investigating, I will stop you. I don’t want to see you talking to suspects. I don’t want to see you gathering evidence. I don’t want to see any of that. I’m not just saying this as a cop but as your friend. Please.”
    “Of course, we’ve got it. We’re not suspects, are we?”
    “Not really. Neither of you were in there long enough, but in the meantime, don’t go anywhere.”
    I turned to my left to look at Moo. I had gotten used to his constant presence. “Good to know we aren’t suspects.”
    “I need to go grab everyone on the list, release the rest, and start this investigation.” Brian left the room.
    Mary flopped into a chair after snatching a pen and pad of paper off my desk.
    Moo walked up behind Mary and looked over her shoulder at the notepad. When the pen slipped out of her grasp, he ducked down to pick it up, chewing on the end. He rested his head on her shoulder, pulling her off to the right. She straightened up, snatched the pen out of his mouth, and started writing a list of names while Moo