The Night Stalker by Carter Chris

Author:Carter, Chris [Carter, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780857202994
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2011-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

Fifty-Eight

Hunter had spent the rest of the night on the computer discovering who Whitney Myers really was.

In the morning, after a strong cup of black coffee, he made his way back to Culver City and Kelly Jensen’s studio. The blinking red light he’d seen last night from her window was a wireless CCTV camera, hidden away in an alcove in the wall. The camera was pointing straight at the small parking lot. There were no computers in Kelly’s studio, so the camera couldn’t have belonged to her.

At 6:00 a.m. only one of the shops that shared the car parking lot with Kelly’s studio was open – Mr. Wang’s convenience store. Hunter’s luck was in; the wireless camera belonged to the elderly bird-like Chinese man.

Mr. Wang’s wrinkled face and observant eyes only hinted at how much he’d lived, what he’d seen and the tremendous knowledge he’d accumulated over so many years.

He told Hunter that he’d asked his son, Fang Li, to install the camera at the back after his old Ford pickup truck was broken into one too many times.

Hunter asked him how far back he kept the recordings.

‘Year,’ Mr. Wang replied with a wide smile that seemed to never fade.

Hunter’s face lit up in surprise. ‘You have recordings going back a year?’

‘Yes. Every minute.’ His voice was like a whisper, but the words came out quickly, as if he was about to run out of time for what he wanted to say. His pronunciation was perfect, indicating that he’d been in America for many years, but the sentences were staccato. ‘Fang Li too smart. Good with computers. He make program that box files. Twelve months – files delete automatic. Don’t need do nothing.’

Hunter bobbed his head. ‘Clever. Can I have a look at them?’

Mr. Wang’s eyes narrowed to such a thin line, Hunter thought he’d closed them. ‘You wanna see in store’s computer?’

A quick nod. ‘Yes. I’d like to see the footage from a few weeks ago.’

Mr. Wang bowed and his smile spread even wider. ‘OK, no problem, but me no good. Need talk to Fang Li. He not here. I call.’ Mr. Wang reached for the phone behind the counter. He spoke Mandarin. The conversation didn’t last longer than a few seconds. ‘Fang Li coming,’ he said, putting the phone down. ‘Be here very fast. Not live far.’ He consulted his watch. ‘Not go to work yet. Too early.’

Hunter asked Mr. Wang about Kelly Jensen. He said that she came into the shop almost every day when she was around, but sometimes she’d disappear for weeks. He liked Kelly very much. He said she was very polite, always happy and very beautiful.

‘In my country, whole village be asking her to marry.’

Hunter smiled and looked around the shop while he waited. He bought a cup of microwavable coffee and a packet of teriyaki-flavored beef jerky. A few minutes later Fang Li arrived. He was in his late twenties, with longish black hair that shined like in a shampoo commercial. His

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