bleed out. You?"
"No sign of anyone entering Kenrey's bedroom. I sent it to some surveillance guys to see what they can turn up, but I don't think we are going to see any evidence of the killer. He planned it too well for that. What I did find was the footage the guards deleted."
Rake played the words over in his mind. "What?"
"After the explosion, the guards flooded out into the grounds, and I watched them scramble around like they'd all had ten beers and couldn't find the toilet. At two points after that, the camera footage has been deleted."
"I didn't see that."
"The footage shows the cameras in sequence for each five minute period. I wondered why the guards gave us the footage like that instead of giving us each camera separately, so I separated all the clips out for each individual camera." It had taken longer than I cared to admit. "In one case a five minute block from one camera has been deleted from the sequence, and in the second case there are ten clicks missing from one block."
"Perhaps it's a glitch in the way the files were copied?"
I picked a piece of fluff off my trousers as if I was considering this. "I was thinking back to yesterday when the guards were messing us around. We thought they were just being rude, but what if they were using that time to delete the necessary footage?"
Rake didn't hide his surprise. "You think the guards did it? Why not the killer?"
"The killer is a possibility, but I don't think so. The deleted footage is from after the murder was committed. If the killer removed it then we have already caught him, because it was one of the guards in charge of surveillance."
"Could be," Rake said.
I shook my head. "I watched the areas around the missing footage over and over, and I'm convinced that the guards deleted the footage to stop themselves looking foolish. In the sequence before the long deletion, two guards, including the one that was shot, are running in opposite directions into the area with the missing footage. One of them must have shot the other one. The same is true for the two wounded guards and the missing ten clicks. Stupid as it sounds, I think they ran into each other."
Rake hesitated. "You mean the killer didn't do any of it?"
I nodded. "I think they were scared that Clazran might think they bungled their chance to catch the killer if he found out what actually happened."
Rake sat up as if he smelled fire. "What about the dead guard?"
"That was still the killer. Throat cut, same as Kenrey."
"Still," Rake said, "the one in the corridor might have been a rapist as well."
I said nothing. Rake wanted to believe that we were searching for a vigilante come to save The Kaerosh from the monsters on the hill. At terminus, he would realize his mistake, but by then it might be too late. I would drink myself to death before returning to the basement, and if he tried to obstruct me solving the case, I would crush him. The bully who ripped up my mint condition Pida Whey action figure I could have beaten to death with a shovel and slept easier than Lola in a patch of sun, but not the new Rake who defended little girls from being raped, that would be harder.
Dr. Dollews approached us with an outstretched hand and a grin wide enough to stretch his cheeks. He was a fat man with several marked patches in his stubble where hair failed to grow. Our hands had barely touched before he let go again from a handshake so limp his arm might have been made of rubber. Then Rake had to pull his hand out of a two hander that seemed to extend cycle upon time while Dollews smiled at him.
I concluded he was aware of Rake's relationship to the Commissioner.
Career scientists were the worst. They had a tendency to give you the data you wanted rather than portray what the evidence actually showed. If I wasn't careful, I would be chasing some fictitious serial killer around The Kaerosh by the end of tomorrow.
He led us down a corridor full of people in lab suits carrying various items that were
"No sign of anyone entering Kenrey's bedroom. I sent it to some surveillance guys to see what they can turn up, but I don't think we are going to see any evidence of the killer. He planned it too well for that. What I did find was the footage the guards deleted."
Rake played the words over in his mind. "What?"
"After the explosion, the guards flooded out into the grounds, and I watched them scramble around like they'd all had ten beers and couldn't find the toilet. At two points after that, the camera footage has been deleted."
"I didn't see that."
"The footage shows the cameras in sequence for each five minute period. I wondered why the guards gave us the footage like that instead of giving us each camera separately, so I separated all the clips out for each individual camera." It had taken longer than I cared to admit. "In one case a five minute block from one camera has been deleted from the sequence, and in the second case there are ten clicks missing from one block."
"Perhaps it's a glitch in the way the files were copied?"
I picked a piece of fluff off my trousers as if I was considering this. "I was thinking back to yesterday when the guards were messing us around. We thought they were just being rude, but what if they were using that time to delete the necessary footage?"
Rake didn't hide his surprise. "You think the guards did it? Why not the killer?"
"The killer is a possibility, but I don't think so. The deleted footage is from after the murder was committed. If the killer removed it then we have already caught him, because it was one of the guards in charge of surveillance."
"Could be," Rake said.
I shook my head. "I watched the areas around the missing footage over and over, and I'm convinced that the guards deleted the footage to stop themselves looking foolish. In the sequence before the long deletion, two guards, including the one that was shot, are running in opposite directions into the area with the missing footage. One of them must have shot the other one. The same is true for the two wounded guards and the missing ten clicks. Stupid as it sounds, I think they ran into each other."
Rake hesitated. "You mean the killer didn't do any of it?"
I nodded. "I think they were scared that Clazran might think they bungled their chance to catch the killer if he found out what actually happened."
Rake sat up as if he smelled fire. "What about the dead guard?"
"That was still the killer. Throat cut, same as Kenrey."
"Still," Rake said, "the one in the corridor might have been a rapist as well."
I said nothing. Rake wanted to believe that we were searching for a vigilante come to save The Kaerosh from the monsters on the hill. At terminus, he would realize his mistake, but by then it might be too late. I would drink myself to death before returning to the basement, and if he tried to obstruct me solving the case, I would crush him. The bully who ripped up my mint condition Pida Whey action figure I could have beaten to death with a shovel and slept easier than Lola in a patch of sun, but not the new Rake who defended little girls from being raped, that would be harder.
Dr. Dollews approached us with an outstretched hand and a grin wide enough to stretch his cheeks. He was a fat man with several marked patches in his stubble where hair failed to grow. Our hands had barely touched before he let go again from a handshake so limp his arm might have been made of rubber. Then Rake had to pull his hand out of a two hander that seemed to extend cycle upon time while Dollews smiled at him.
I concluded he was aware of Rake's relationship to the Commissioner.
Career scientists were the worst. They had a tendency to give you the data you wanted rather than portray what the evidence actually showed. If I wasn't careful, I would be chasing some fictitious serial killer around The Kaerosh by the end of tomorrow.
He led us down a corridor full of people in lab suits carrying various items that were
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