Cold Silence by Anderson Toni

Author:Anderson, Toni
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Toni Anderson Inc.
Published: 2022-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

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Yael copied the footage first and made sure she kept the files isolated from her own machine until she could take a deep dive into the metadata. She wouldn’t put it past EG to plant some worm or virus in the surveillance images to attempt to gain access to her machine again.

It took much less time to copy than she’d anticipated and then she realized why. The timestamp jumped from Tuesday afternoon, all the way until early this morning.

The bastard had somehow wiped any footage that might have exposed his identity and delayed the cameras from restarting until this morning. She wasn’t sure if he’d done it remotely or in person but there was no obvious footage of him.

She leaned back against the chair, frustrated. He seemed to think of everything. She ran the remaining video through a facial recognition program the FBI had access to. It took about twenty minutes, but nothing popped except for an ex-con who’d also checked in Tuesday—the guy was beefy around the shoulders and, she was guesstimating, way shorter than EG. She made a note of the man’s name and sent it off to Ashley Chen to follow up.

Yael checked for some sort of cloud backup system but, not surprisingly, there wasn’t one. This place ran on too thin profit margins to invest heavily in security. Most people would only ever visit once, on a road trip or just passing through, and there wasn’t a lot to steal around here.

Yael searched the motel’s computer hard drive and the online trash looking for anything EG may have overlooked. She found absolutely nothing.

Had he been here, in this chair? Or had he accessed the system remotely?

A text pinged her phone. Shane. The words made her stomach roil. The nightwatchman was dead in unit eleven.

Another childish squeal from beyond the glass door made her glance in that direction. A shiver raced over her skin. If Sunita had been the one to check EG into the motel on Tuesday night, she probably wouldn’t be alive now. Would he have killed the children too?

The inner door opened and Yael jumped in her seat. Shit.

A little girl about four appeared, followed by a toddler waddling along either because of his short legs or the sheer volume of clothes his mother had dressed him in.

“Would you mind watching them in the parking lot for a few moments while I grab my coat and purse?” Sunita asked Yael.

“Sure thing.” Yael stood and went to the front door. The kids darted outside and both immediately knelt to play with a couple of kittens who’d streaked across from the opposite side of the complex.

She smiled. They were cute kids and kittens. She hated the fact EG had plied his sick brand of cruelty so close to them.

Yael leaned against the side of the building and glanced across the parking lot to where Shane and Alex both stood talking on their phones.

Shane turned, saw her, and started heading in her direction. He moved

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