Chapter 30
"You're a lifesaver," I said. "I'm on it."
I thanked her and ended the call.
“Where the hell is your prisoner?” Daniels asked when he spotted us at Denise’s empty terminal.
“Under direct supervision,” I said.
His eyes narrowed at me. “What kind of supervision? Never mind. I don’t want to know. But if you two screw this up, so help me…”
“Everything’s under control.”
“You don’t seem to be making a whole hell of a lot of progress.”
“You know, sometimes progress can look like a setback,” I said, trying to sound sincere.
“Save it,” he said before marching off.
JD and I left the station, hopped into the Porsche, and zipped across the island to the gas station. It was a nice new place with plenty of pumps and a quick mart.
Inside, I flashed my badge to the clerk and asked him to pull up security footage from a month ago. I hoped they had it on file. It wasn't uncommon to cycle through footage after 30 days. Storage was expensive, especially these days.
The clerk didn't look too pleased about the added work.
After he dealt with a few customers, he locked the front of the store and escorted us to the back office.
Cameras throughout the facility captured the action—one on the cash register, one on the door, and a camera on each pump. Not to mention cameras embedded within the pumps. There was no getting around the fact, we lived in a surveillance state.
With a few clicks of the mouse, he pulled up the footage. "What's the date you're looking for?"
I told him.
He scrolled back through the timeline and invited us around the desk to look at the screen. I gave him the exact time of the credit card transaction. He scrubbed through the footage, and I couldn't believe what we saw.
Wyatt filled up his white, dual-cab truck. Afterward, he pulled the truck around and parked to the side of the building. Three people climbed out of the truck. They walked around the corner toward Palm Haven.
They all wore dark clothing with long sleeves and beanies on their heads. They all carried empty backpacks. These figures matched the footage from the Palm Haven burglary.
The license plate on Wyatt's truck was clear. This was him. There was no doubt about it.
We scrubbed through the timeline moving forward. About 20 minutes later, the gang returned, their backpacks full.
The clerk exported the clips and sent a download link to my phone. I forwarded that to the sheriff, then JD and I headed back to the station.
We filled out an application for a warrant and waited.