Page 6 of If You Fight

Cradling my face, she pressed her forehead to mine. “To us.”

I left Serenalying there in that bed with her dreams of revenge and worried she was underestimating her father and Oliver. He’d tried to kill her once already. What would stop him from trying again?

By the time I reached Robert still standing outside the car, his look of fatherly concern had disappeared, replaced by a far flintier look. I braced myself for his interrogation since I’d been up there with Serena for a while, but the first words out of his mouth weren’t questions about me or what we’d talked about at all.

“I want to see those security tapes tonight. I already called Johnson about them while I was waiting for you. If an intruder could get onto the estate and into Serena’s home, I damn well want to know how.”

Knowing what he’d find on them, I nodded in agreement, as I had to. “Sounds like a good idea.”

We rode back to the estate in silence as I eagerly waited for him to see the proof of who had come and go from Serena’s apartment that day. The question was what would Robert do when he found out that the only person who could have done that to Serena was her husband.

He waved at me to follow him to where Johnson and the other real security guys spent their days on the first floor directly beneath the bedroom wing of the main house. He sat in a room full of monitors that showed the outside areas around Serena’s apartment, Robert’s townhouse at the far end of the estate, the front door to the main house, the side and front doors of the garage, and the main door leading to the apartments where I and the rest of his on-site employees stayed.

Johnson, a tall lanky guy with closely cropped jet black hair that looked startling compared to his silver beard, swiveled around to face us and began talking as soon as Robert entered the room. Pointing at his monitors like we knew what had gotten him so excited, he said quickly, “I’ve looked through every bit of footage you asked me to and there’s a problem.”

Those were exactly the words Robert hated to hear. His body tensed up until he looked as stiff as an ironing board next to me, and I took a step back toward the door, knowing what would likely happen next.

Too bad. Johnson was a decent guy, even if he tended to ramble on about fishing when he got you alone.

“You know what I think of when I hear someone say that, don’t you, Johnson? I think someone’s not taking care of business, which in my mind is the worst thing a person can do, especially when he’s been ordered not an hour before to take care of exactly that fucking business!”

Robert’s voice echoed off the walls and shook the equipment. Johnson’s eyes bugged open like being yelled at startled him, and he began explaining himself. “It’s nothing I or any of us did. I swear, sir. It’s just that whoever went into that apartment must have known exactly where the cameras were located because it’s like some kind of fog or something affected the view of the camera outside her apartment, and the front gate camera has been on the fritz for the past week, as Snyder told you when it first happened. Look for yourself.”

“Fog? What are you talking about? Fog doesn’t just drop itself in front of a goddamned camera while the rest of them work,” Robert bellowed, just slightly quieter this time.

Johnson nodded his head up and down so fast he looked like a bobble head doll. “I know. That’s just what I thought too, sir. But that’s exactly what happened. Take a look. You can see it as clear as day right there on the tape.”

Robert glared at him, and I winced at his poor choice of words. He spun around in his chair to point at the monitor that showed what the camera outside of Serena’s apartment recorded that evening. A few minutes before she said she was attacked, the camera shot became cloudy, obscuring the view for an hour’s time. Then he pointed to the monitor next to it and we saw the front gate camera going black for long periods of time as it had for the past week.

I stared over Robert’s shoulder knowing it had been Oliver who did it. Probably with something sprayed directly onto the lens. It wouldn’t have been difficult.

But did Robert suspect him?

I had no idea, and as he stood hunched over Johnson staring at the monitor, he said nothing. Finally, when he stood up, he simply shook his head.

But there were other ways to make sure he suspected Oliver. Quickly, I suggested he look at the tapes from the other cameras around the estate. “Whoever did this didn’t just disappear into thin air. What about looking at the footage from the side door of the garage? That should show if anyone drove past anytime during the night.”

As if my idea made him happy, he nodded and patted me on the shoulder. “Good idea.” Then he turned to Johnson, who was already loading up the garage door footage. “Why didn’t you think of this? Does Ryder have to do everything here? He saved Serena, for God’s sake. I’d think someone else who works for me could pick up the ball here.”

Johnson didn’t have an answer for Robert’s questions, so he wisely kept his mouth shut until the footage was available. “Here it is, sir.”

The three of us watched, and I waited with my heart in my throat to see Oliver’s car pass by on his way out of the estate after attacking Serena. The angle wasn’t perfect, so there was no way the driver of any car going by could be seen, but at least if Robert could see proof that a car like Oliver’s had driven by during that time he might put the pieces together.

Minute after minute passed with no sign that anyone had gone near the garage door, but then a single car sped by, barely visible on the security tape. My heart sank. It wouldn’t be enough to point the finger at that fucker, even though I knew it was his car.

Robert and Johnson saw it too, and Robert yelled, “Wait! Back it up! I saw something pass by. Ryder, did you see that? There’s a car there.”

Johnson did as ordered and slowed the tape down to show that a car had gone by during the window of time Serena’s attacker would have fled the scene. The problem was between the angle and the darkness of the camera shot, the car may have been black or even a dark green or blue. It wasn’t definitive.

“What color is that car?” Robert asked the two of us. “We need to know the color of that car.”

Johnson guessed it was probably black, and knowing Oliver drove a dark blue BMW, I said, “Black or blue. Either one.”

I hoped Robert took the hint.

He looked off in the distance like he was running through every car that he knew could be on the estate, and then he narrowed his eyes.

“Hmmm.”

I wanted to ask if he’d remembered something, but I didn’t have the chance. Spinning on his heels, he pushed past me as he barked, “Johnson, keep looking at those tapes! Ryder, be ready when I call you.”

All I could hope for was he had finally come to the realization that the only person who could have hurt Serena was her husband. When the time came and he gave me the order to take care of Oliver for what he’d done, she’d have to understand.

Even if I had a choice, he’d be dead. Thankfully, I wouldn’t have a choice.

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