Page 19 of Steal My Heart

He nodded and joined Brian outside the building. “Is this too hard?” Hilliard asked quietly.

“In some ways. It’s been like saying goodbye to Gramps all over again.” Hilliard got the feeling Brian hadn’t had much of a chance to grieve the loss of his grandfather. “But what am I going to do, fall to pieces right here?”

Hilliard tossed him the keys. “If you want, put the top up and sit with your grandmother.” He had an idea that this was affecting both of them more deeply than either wanted to admit.

“I’ll be okay. I need to do this.” Brian pressed the keys back into Hilliard’s hand. “Let’s go.” He led the way inside and began looking around while Hilliard paused near the door before approaching the lady at the register, who was about his age and with a name tag that read Bridget. “Excuse me, but that sign….” He pointed to the one regarding security camera in use. “Is that real?”

She smiled and indicated a camera in the corner before leaning slightly forward. “We had some people a few years ago who caused a lot of problems, so the board had a camera installed to deter them.” She sighed. “Not that they use the recordings for anything.”

“But I suppose they could if something happened,” Hilliard prompted.

“They could if they knew what they were doing. The problem is that no one used the information, and it just keeps building up on the system. I’ve been trying to help them put a retention system in place, but the most they did was have the cameras shut off when we’re closed.”

Hilliard smiled. “So you have multiple years of video?”

“They did some cleanup in the beginning, but yeah. It’s compressed on the server, but we have gobs of it. Why?”

Hilliard could barely breathe. “Would it be possible to see it? I have the date and approximate time.” He grinned because this was almost too good to be true and he didn’t want to get his hopes up.

“Why?” Bridget asked.

“I’m a lawyer, but not here in California yet. The thing is, a friend of mine was accused of a crime he didn’t commit. And the day of the crime, he was here with his grandfather, who passed away right afterwards. Your video could be the way we can prove he was here.”

“You’re serious?” she asked, and Hilliard nodded.

“Can you help me?”

“Let me get someone to take the register,” she said and called to the other lady in the shop, who took over. Then she got a laptop from under the counter and logged in.

“We should get out of her way.” Bridget led Hilliard to one of the shaded benches just outside. Hilliard signaled to Brian, who joined them. Hilliard gave her the date and approximate time.She brought up the file for that day and began scrolling through. She slowed the video.

“That’s me, and there’s Gramps. We must have just arrived.”

They continued forwarding the video as the lady at the register helped various visitors. About a half an hour after they first appeared, Brian and his grandfather appeared again, with his grandfather buying something and shoving the receipt into his pocket before taking the sweatshirt with him.

“He was a little cold, since the clouds were rolling in,” Brian said, glued to the images on the screen, while Hilliard checked the time. In the video, it was a little before two in the afternoon. Both Brian and his grandfather then left and made no additional appearances on camera.

“Is that what you needed?” Bridget asked. “Did it help?”

“Yes, a lot. Can we get a copy of this file?” Hilliard said with a grin. “Brian, go back in the gift shop and buy one of those turtle-shaped USB drives.” He opened his wallet and pulled out a couple of twenties. “And put these in the donation box.” He would do just about anything to make Bridget happy.

“When he gets back, I’ll give you a copy of the file,” she agreed. “And I’ll make an extra copy here so it will be available.” She typed some, and when Brian returned, she inserted the drive and added the file. “You have to promise to come back and let me know how things work out.”

“We will,” Brian said when she handed him the drive. “This could clear my name.” He was practically shaking.

“Thank you, Bridget. We really appreciate it.” Hilliard shook her hand as she got up from the bench and closed the laptop. Brian hurried back to the car, with Hilliard following.

“We got it,” Brian said. “They had old video.”

“Apparently they never cleared their camera system after they installed it.” Hilliard took the drive, made sure the cover was on it, and slipped it into his pocket.

“So you were here and you can prove it,” Beverly said.

“To a large degree, but don’t get your hopes up.” Dammit, Hilliard hated throwing cold water on their happiness, but technically it was still possible for Brian to have done it, at least as far as the timeline was concerned. “We have a long way to go.”

Chapter 8

“WHAT DOyou mean?” Brian felt like the rug had been pulled out from under him—again. “Gramps and I were there. The video is time-stamped. What more do they want?”

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