Page 50 of Resisting His Target
He hung up the phone and made his way downstairs, insisting on speaking with the head of hotel security, a woman in a navy blue suit and heels. But when he explained he needed to see surveillance video, he was brought to a small office with what appeared to be a teenage boy in jeans and a hoodie.
Razorback had always stayed cool under pressure, but this time he was panicked, out of control, scared. “I need to see who she left with and where they went. Can you do that?”
“Our system is equipped with facial recognition software,” the kid said, typing furiously in a hunt-and-peck kind of way. He quickly found the footage from check-in, locking in on Jackie’s features. “Starting the scan now.” A list of several time-stamped files showed up on the screen. “These are images of your friend from every camera she passed by.”
Razorback watched as she exited her room just after six, returning with coffee. She met with a man in the lobby and went back to her room. “Who is that guy?” he asked.
The head of security entered the room. “Any luck?” she asked.
“I need that guy’s name,” Razorback said, pointing at the screen. The kid scanned the man’s features and searched again. “That’s the only footage we have of him, so he’s not a guest of the hotel.”
The woman leaned closer to the screen. “Wait, Jesse, zoom in on that image. Isn’t that Frank Gough? The news anchor for Channel 13.”
The kid blew out air. “I don’t watch the news.” He opened a browser window and searched for the reporter, deftly copying the man’s photo from the station website and importing it into his facial recognition program. “That’s him, all right.”
Jackie met with a reporter? When had she set that up? The last he knew, going to the media before her appearance at the convention wasn’t part of the plan. “Stay with that angle,” said Razorback. “We need to see who breaks into the room.” His eyes were riveted to the screen as the kid fast-forwarded through the recording. But instead of someone breaking in, they saw Jackie walking out, alone.
Razorback sat back in his chair, confused. “Follow her.” The video moved seamlessly from the hallway to the elevator, then to the lobby, where Jackie again met up with the reporter. They walked out of the building together, heading toward the convention center.
“That’s it,” said the kid.
Razorback leaned forward in his chair. “Go to the next clip of her in the hotel.”
“That’s all I’ve got. She never came back.”
“Then when the hell was her room broken into?”
“Let’s see.” The kid brought up the video from Jackie’s hallway, fast-forwarding to the attempted break-in. A man in a T-shirt and dark pants, his face carefully turned away from the camera. He appeared to leave empty-handed. “That’s pretty amazing that we never got a look at his face,” said the kid.
“Not amazing. Deliberate.”
Fucking SVX.
He thanked the kid and head of security and walked outside to the street. Hopefully, Jackie was safe in the convention center, and he still needed to find a way inside. The thought instantly reminded him of Selena and Sloan, his gut telling him those two were anything but safe.
He could see Selena in her baggy rainbow bathing suit, glaring at him, see her pudgy little hand jutting out to color whenever he looked at her.
He couldn’t breathe, could barely think.
He bowed his head, not sure he believed in angels, but knowing he’d make it through the fire at the resort somehow and that he needed the help of one angel in particular more than he’d ever needed anything before in his life.
Peaches, it’s Razorback. Are you there?
30
The atmosphere inside the convention center was electric—red, white, and blue filling the space like jelly beans in a jar. Thousands of people cheered and waved signs.
Jackie stayed close to the news crew, her glasses and press pass making her nearly invisible as she listened to the impassioned speeches of men and women, leaders of the Democrat Party. Her mind wandered through the events of her life that brought her to this moment, each of them circling back to Doug.
She’d loved him once, a very long time ago. It was he who had given her Selena, and for that she would always be grateful. But his self-centeredness had taken away so much from her, forever changing her life by necessitating she separate it from his.
Then there was Ian. Her heart told her he was good, a decent human being with the capacity to love her as she longed to be loved. But in reality, he wasn’t able to get past the demons that kept him separated from life.
Today she would rise from the dead and take back the life she’d given up eight years before. She would right Doug’s wrong, and she would leave Ian behind despite the heartache she was sure to have. She would go forward with just Selena by her side, and they would learn to be happy again.
A woman in a red suit took the stage.“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am Victoria McGrath. I think you may have met my husband.”A laugh went through the crowd as the hair on Jackie’s arms stood on end. The giant screens on either side of the stage zoomed in on Victoria’s face.
She was pretty in a plain sort of way, with short brown hair cut in a trendy style and a magazine model smile. A strange feeling struck Jackie, as if she was staring at an enchanted mirror that showed her what could have been, instead of what had actually happened.
