Page 80 of Operation: Silent Angel
Mac sat back observing, impressed with his two teammates and learning how much force was acceptable on the Shepherd Security Team. He would have handled it similarly if on his own. It was good to know his instincts would have been acceptable in this situation.
“I don’t know what happened to them. They checked out and left, not my responsibility.”
“Did they seem okay when they handed their keys back?” Cooper pressed.
“They didn’t actually hand them to me. They dropped them in the drop box outside that morning. They were gone before I got in that day,” Williamson said.
Mac brought the file up on his phone. He distinctly recalled reading the police report that did not say that, and he knew exactly where in the file it was. “Per the police report, you said they checked out that morning at eight a.m. and that nothing seemed out of the ordinary,” Mac said. “You did not say you did not see them and that they dropped their keys in the outside drop box. Why did you lie?”
“I was asked what time they checked out. I brought up my records and told them I logged it at eight a.m. I didn’t lie. And no, nothing was out of the ordinary. Guests leave their keys and depart before the office opens all the time,” Williamson insisted.
“You didn’t give them the key piece of information that you did not see them,” Mac snapped.
“Who the hell are you? You’re not even an American with that accent,” Williamson said.
“I am an American citizen, which is not the point,” Mac said. “You withheld critical information from the authorities. We need to see all the footage you captured inside cabin seven while those men were guests.”
“What makes you think I didn’t delete it?” Williamson said.
“For your sake, I hope you didn’t,” Mac said. “You’re facing a lot of charges as it is. You’ll never see outside of a jail cell again if you deleted it.”
X-Ray
The morning sunlight streamed through the thin white window curtains, waking Mac from a deep sleep. The twin bed groaned as he pulled himself to a seated position, noticing the chill in the air. The cabins were not heated. The other bed was vacant. He wondered when Cooper had gotten up and how he hadn’t heard him. He also had to wonder if this was him losing his edge because of the new domestic bliss he enjoyed by sleeping beside Yvette most nights over the past few weeks. Glancing at his watch, he was surprised to see it was nearly seven.
Mac quickly pulled his jeans back on and slid a pair of socks over his feet. His shoes were near the front door of the cabin. Pushing open the room door, he found Cooper and Robinson seated at the wood dining table, drinking coffee. The fireplace was lit, which had kept the main room warm.
“Morning,” he said. “Any news from the Digital Team regarding the recordings?” He went to the coffeepot and poured himself a cup.
Garcia had gained remote access into the surveillance system John Williamson had that recorded all the cabins in his campground after Williamson had shown them the computer the system was housed on. The entire week-long recordings were divided among several Digital Team members to review. It would be faster this way as that was a lot of hours to review and most of it would show a vacant cabin with no discussion as the men would have spent most waking hours out on the lake fishing, plus there’d be at least six or seven hours each night that they slept that could be fast-forwarded through. A software program would help with the audio recordings, cueing up each section with sounds.
“Yes, Garcia reported this morning that his team has gotten through a lot of it and so far nothing to explain their disappearances. They should get through the rest of it, and the last day, this morning. My bet is on the last night and the morning of their departure that will give us some clues,” Cooper said.
Mac took a seat with them at the table nearest the fire to get warmed up.
“I still say they should have started at the last morning and worked their way back on the recordings,” Robinson said.
“Where’s Gallup this morning?” Mac asked.
“Went for a run,” Cooper said. “And before you ask, Flores reports all was quiet for him and Winston last night at Williamson’s house.”
After they’d confronted John Williamson and he’d given them access to the computer the recordings were stored on, they took him into protective custody. Flores and Winston remained with him until the shop was closed, and they accompanied him home. Not able to determine yet if he had anything to do with the disappearance of the four men, he would not be left alone.
“So, we’re still in wait mode,” Mac commented.
“Not entirely. As soon as Gallup gets back, he and I are going to go check out cabin number seven, which no one else has stayed in since the men disappeared. You and Robinson should take the boat out to that branch of the creek we know our four men were told about and see if anything looks off,” Cooper said.
Just before Mac and Robinson were going to head down to the little dock to take the boat out, Cooper received a call from Garcia. Cooper put the call on speaker. “The team is done with the initial assessment of the camera and audio surveillance. There were no violent scenes captured, and no words exchanged that indicated any problems. The one notable thing detected was a loss of signal the morning the four men were to check out of the campground, and Woods was able to confirm that the entire campground’s electric cut out for two hours that morning,” Garcia reported. “I have Smith following up on that with the electric company right now. I’ll forward that info to you as soon as I get it.”
“That’s just a little too coincidental,” Cooper said.
“And convenient,” Mac added.
“How widespread was that outage?” Robinson asked.
“Smith’s also checking into that. He’s also researching how often outages take place in the area,” Garcia said.
“Williamson should be asked about it. Just to see if he gives a verifiable answer,” Gallup, who’d just returned from his run, said.
