Page 40 of Possession

She led us through the saloon-style swinging door into the back, around racks of covered baked goods, until we reached a small office. Jane took a seat in the office chair and tapped the keyboard.

“Sorry, I have such ancient equipment. My father owned the bakery before me and still lived in archaic times when it comes to technology. It’s just something I haven’t gotten around to upgrading yet.”

I shook off her apologies. “Don’t worry about it.”

“If you give me just a second, I can rewind the tapes all the way back to this morning when Madeline arrived.”

“Actually, can you go back further than that? We’re looking for a guy that might have already been here waiting.”

She shot us a questioning glance, but did as we asked. “I’ll roll back to when we opened.”

I nodded my thanks. The three of us stared at the monitor, watching the fast moving images on the screen play backwards. I thought I caught a glimpse of Madeline in one frame, but it went by too quickly. A few moments later, the image blacked out. There was some brief static and then the picture cleared. We watched as customers came and left with still no sign of our potential suspect.

“Is there any way to speed up the frames without specifically fast-forwarding?” I asked after twenty minutes of absolutely nothing. We’d be here all day at this rate, and we didn’t have that kind of time.

Jane bit her lip in uncertainty. “Maybe. Let me try something.”

She fiddled with a couple buttons and soon the frames began progressing faster, but not so fast that we couldn’t see every detail. Frame after frame passed quickly, but still nothing. It was closing in on the time that Madeline had arrived and I’d just about given up any hope that this was going to lead us to someone. That was until we got to the 7:32 a.m. time stamp.

“Shit, there. Slow it back down, please.” Joseph and I sat up, alert now that a new customer had walked into the bakery. The screen speed slowed and we watched as a man whose entire face wasn’t visible yet stood at the counter ordering. He turned as though to look over his shoulder toward the door and his entire face came into view.

“Him,” Joseph pointed to the man now visible. “Do you recognize that guy?”

Jane leaned forward to stare closely at the screen, studying it with narrowed eyes. “Yeah, his name is Grady. He’s been a regular for the last month or so. Comes in a few times a week, always sits at the same table. Nice guy, tips well.”

“Do you know Grady’s last name?” I couldn’t keep the excitement out of my voice that maybe we were going to get this guy.

She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry I don’t. He’s never told me, and I’ve never asked.”

“Does he ever pay with a credit card? Maybe this morning? Would you have a receipt, anything, with his full name on it?”

Her shoulders fell. “He always pays cash to my knowledge.”

“Fuck,” Joseph jumped from his chair and began to pace, his fingers laced behind his head.

“I wish I could help more.”

I reached out and laid my hand on her forearm. “You’ve helped more than you know. Thank you.”

It felt weird being the one offering comfort to someone. Usually that was Joseph’s job. He was the one who was good at it. Me? I was usually the one cursing and pacing. I rose to take my place next to Joseph.

“Let’s go talk to Kurt. Give him our guy’s name and see what he can come up with.”

Joseph stopped pacing to look over at me before nodding. I turned back to Jane.

“Can we take this tape with us?”

“Of course,” she hurriedly removed the surveillance video before handing it to me.

I took it from her hands. “Thanks for your time. We really do appreciate it.”

“I hope Madeline is alright. If I think of anything else, I promise to call you.”

We weaved our way through the kitchen again and out through the bakery until we reached the car. I knew Joseph was hanging on by a thread. I knew, because I felt the exact same way.

“We’ll find her.”

There was no reply as I pulled away from the curb and headed back to FBI headquarters. We needed to meet with Kurt. I only prayed we weren’t too late to save her.

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