Chapter 18
Darnell went hard on Dr. McGill. Tore him a new one. Got the man to write down everyone who had access to the gas storage area, with a shaking hand.
It was a short list.
The man himself, a TA, a couple other department heads. And security, of course.
“Should . . . should I get a lawyer?” Dr. McGill squeaked.
“Maybe.” Darnell loved playing the bad guy. Happy, funny. Mean. It was all the same to him. Seamless transition. Father, husband . . . widower, childless. “If you say anything to anyone about us coming here today? Then I’d definitely recommend it.”
They left. On the way out, they heard Dr. McGill rattle energy drink cans in search of a final slurp.
“How the fuck does that happen?” Darnell mumbled, shaking his head.
“No idea. You know where the security head office is?”
“Lemme check—200 Elm. Fifteen-minute walk from here.” The sun was starting to set now, but it was still warm out. Darnell was sweating. Maybe from the heat, maybe from withdrawal. “Don’t even think about it. I’m not walking.”
They drove. Pulled up in front of a beautiful building. Small, multicolored brick exterior. Curved, thirty-foot entryway, matching windows down the side.
Flashing their badges was enough to get them through the door. A stern conversation with a guard gained them access to the room that housed the security footage.
“Right—so you want to see the footage from outside Sherrerd Hall, ‘round back. What time?”
What day?
“Dr. McGill said that the cans were still there last Tuesday.”
“Cans?” The guard questioned. Neither Darnell nor Vaughn entertained this. “Okay. Last Tuesday. Day, night, what?”
Vaughn wasn’t sure. Took a different approach.
“Do you know an Aaron Treadman?”
“He a security guard?”
“Was.”
“Aaron . . . ?”
“Treadman,” Vaughn confirmed.
“No—don’t think so. Only started working here a couple of weeks ago. Haven’t met everyone yet. They got me locked up in here most of the time.”
Darnell appeared about to say something disparaging, Vaughn could see it in his face. His eyes. The way his mouth twitched.
He didn’t give his partner a chance.
There were three tanks of hydrogen sulfide gas still out there. They didn’t have time to chastise and condemn.
“Do campus security guards have access cards to all areas of the university?”
“Almost all, I think. There are some—”
“The swipe cards, are they individually coded?”
The guard raised an eyebrow. He was young, maybe late twenties. Ratty little goatee he probably thought was trendy.
“Coded?”
“What I mean is, if a security guard scans their card, does it register as campus security, or can you link it to an individual?”
“Ah, I get it—individual.”
He stroked the long blond hairs on his chin.
“Can you look up Aaron Treadman’s data? He was let go a few months back.”
“If he was let go, then he would have had to turn in his card.”
“Just look.”
“Even if he didn’t, all of his privileges would have been revoked. They told me this during orient—”
“Just look,” Vaughn repeated sharply.
“Alright, alright.”
The guard was seated in front of a computer. Judging by the size of him, he wasn’t used to moving much. But at least he typed quickly. A spreadsheet appeared, the cursor jumped around.
“That’s weird.”
“What?”
“I see Aaron’s name here. His card wasn’t deactivated.”
Darnell grumbled something disparaging.
“When was it last used?”
“A couple of days ago. But if he was fired, it shouldn’t—”
“Pull up the video footage from the last time his card was used.”
The guard muttered under his breath, something about this not being protocol.
Darnell was fuming, heat coming off him in waves. A manifestation of his anger.
The spreadsheet vanished, replaced by a black screen. The guard clicked furiously. Logged out, logged back in.
“What’s happening?” Darnell demanded.
“The footage . . . it’s all black.”
“Where was the card scanned?” Vaughn asked.
“The cage behind Sherrerd Hall.”
Of course it was.
“What do you mean all black?” Vaughn said, shaking his head. He was starting to heat up, just like Darnell. “Was the camera painted over?”
He pictured their unsub standing on their toes, maybe on a portable step stool, showering the camera with black spray paint. More than likely wearing a mask but before they blacked out the lens, they might be able to get an idea of the unsub’s height and build.
No such luck.
“No, I have footage from today, but not the day the card was used . . . someone deleted the video. Wait—that’s not right, either. It wasn’t deleted. Someone replaced it with an all black video. Why would they do that?”
Vaughn thought he knew why.
A missing file might be noticed. Perhaps security did a daily or weekly audit to make sure all cameras were up and running properly. If they noticed a missing file, they might be inclined to investigate. Realize that the tanks were gone, too. Sound the alarm.
“How difficult would it be to do something like that? Get into the system?” Vaughn asked. “Delete or replace files?”
“I . . . I dunno. I just monitor the cameras. I don’t—man, I just started here.”
“Fucking hell,” Darnell said.
“Any way to recover the lost footage?”
“I mean, if it was missing, yeah, maybe, but it’s not. It’s been overwritten.”
“Is it on the cloud?”
“This is the cloud. Everything is on the cloud. No local storage.”
Vaughn glanced at Darnell. The man practically had steam coming out of his ears.
“Take my card. You find out who replaced the footage or if you somehow manage to recover it, call me.”
The guard looked stunned as he accepted the card. Vaughn could tell that Darnell was about to shit on this guy.
“Let’s go, Darnell.”
They started toward the door, Vaughn in the lead. Darnell stopped.
“Hey, it’s your job to watch the cameras, right?”
“Y-yeah.”
“Then watch the fucking cameras! You know what? I want to speak to your supervisor.”
“M-m-my supervisor?”
“Yes, your—”
Vaughn grabbed Darnell’s arm, tried to reel him in. As much as this kid had fucked up by not noticing the black video before now, he was just a kid. This was probably his first job. Besides, getting him fired would bring them no closer to the missing tanks. It would also waste time.
“What?” Darnell bared his teeth and shook free. He was on the verge of becoming unhinged, but somehow managed to regain his composure. “Fine—let’s just get the fuck out of here before I strangle someone.”
Vaughn believed him.