Page 65 of Savage Ruin
“Henley Night worked closely with Marcos. He was her colleague, friend, and mentor. During this time, in our shared grief, we’ve become close and consider her part of the Santos family now,” Thiago states firmly.
He starts to ask another question, but Thiago gives him his “don’t fuck with me” stare, and the man immediately sits down.
When there are no other questions for us, Thiago turns the podium over to the lead investigator for the ATF. A lady named Cassandra Stone.
She waves a hand toward us. “First, I want to thank the Santos family and SEI for their full cooperation in this investigation. This is a very difficult time for them personally, and yet, they’ve stepped up to give us full access to their staff, video surveillance, and any additional information we deemed necessary to conduct our investigation and pinpoint the suspect.”
With a series of answers and non-answers, she quickly informs them Diego Gutierrez is the prime suspect in the bombing because of his involvement with the murder of Marcos Santos. The ATF believes the bomb was set to cover up the deed. They are unable to locate Diego Gutierrez at this time, but he’s wanted for questioning in the bombing of the office building. If anyone has any knowledge of his whereabouts, they can call their Miami office. She cannot answer any questions on the murder investigation because it’s been turned over to the FBI. At this time, there is not a warrant out for Diego Gutierrez.
The press conference comes to an end. Reporters race to get their closing thoughts on camera. Cassandra and her team leave immediately.
Thiago motions for us to return to the building. When he walks by Henley, he pulls her in front so he can shield her from behind. Grayson, in turn, shields Thiago, although he’s unaware of it.
As I turn, an old man standing at the back of the crowd catches my eye. He’s glaring at Thiago with eyes full of hate. Uneasy, I stop and grab Jameson’s arm. “See that man in the back of the crowd?”
Someone steps between us, and when they move, he’s gone.
“Let’s inform the guys in the video control room. They’ll bring up the footage and we’ll see who it was,” Jameson says immediately.
Our new security team is exactly why I’d fought so hard against Diego. Instead of bullies and thugs, we have professionals and state-of-the-art security.
“Let’s check it out,” I urge him.
When we get inside, I motion to Henley and explain where we’re going.
She turns back to Thiago and informs him she’s going to the security room with me. He frowns and raises a single eyebrow.
“Thought I saw something in the crowd. We’re going to pull up the footage,” I inform him. The crowd of employees are waiting for the Q&A session he promised in order to answer their questions. “Go. We’ll let you know if we find anything.”
When we get to the control room, it’s a hive of activity. They’re checking the faces in the crowd for David and anyone looking suspicious or out of place.
I stand behind one of the tech guys and point out the area where I saw the man. Sure enough. He was standing there the whole time. To my surprise, he’s the one who asked the question about Marcos’ role at SEI.
They pull his face from the camera to run a facial recognition search on him.
“Pull his fingerprint, too,” Henley suggests. “Sometimes people use software or a disruptor to obscure their features from the cameras. They forget about their fingerprints, though. With the level of detail your video picks up here, we might be lucky enough to zoom in and capture it.”
“Good idea,” he remarks. He taps the keys to get closer and when the man raises his hand to ask the question, we’re able to capture the print from his right forefinger. It’s not the only thing we see, though.
Henley leans in closer. “Are there a bunch of numbers on his hand?”
The guy sharpens the image and cuts in closer.
“It’s a phone number with the country code +55,” the guy says, quickly grabbing a piece of paper and writing it down. “We’ll run the number, too.” He jumps up and runs over to a guy at a nearby computer and hands him the number.
He comes back a few minutes later. “Burner phone. What do you want to do?”
Jameson comes over. “Call it.”
The guy dials the number. A gravelly older voice picks up. “Have Thiago call me. 011 55 11 3310 9976.” He hangs up.
“Merda!” I say, grabbing the number and Henley’s hand. I motion for Jameson to stay. “I’ll take care of this.”
“Do you know who it is?” Henley asks breathlessly when we enter the elevator.
“I think it’s Thiago’s father,” I return with a groan.
CHAPTER32
