Page 31 of So Normal

“So, an employee or a regular passenger who uses that platform,” Michael said.

“Possibly.”

Michael sighed. “So, there could possibly only be several hundred thousand suspects.”

“That’s better than twenty million,” Faith offered.

Michael didn’t find that observation funny.

***

“How is it possible that not a single security camera faces this entire platform?” Michael asked.

“Well, we cover the coffee cart, ticketing counter, and boarding area,” Sita said. “We feel that’s adequate coverage.”

“Do you still feel that way?” Michael asked.

Sita didn’t respond to that.

Faith and Michael had returned to the terminal after wrapping up at the coroner’s office. With no connection between their victims but the terminal, they decided their time was best spent looking for leads there. Their first stop upon arriving was visiting the security office. Sita had promised Michael she would look into footage of the night McIlhenny was killed but hadn’t yet gotten back to him.

Now, Faith knew why. The security cameras at the terminal were woefully inadequate. They covered high traffic areas well enough, but there were plenty of places with no coverage at all, including the majority of the platform where McIlhenny and Richardson were found.

“That’s an employee only area,” Sita explained. “We didn’t think we’d need to monitor that area.”

“So, your employees are immune to criminal activity?” Michael challenged, irritated.

“We vet our employees very well,” Sita said. “Full background checks for everyone.”

“If I had all day, I could list the number of people who’ve had full background checks and turned out to be murderers,” Michael said, “for God’s sake, Miss Bhandari.”

“What do you want me to say?” she said, lifting her hands in frustration. “We don’t sit at board meetings thinking ‘How can we aim our security cameras to catch any potential murderers who might be planting bodies in our busiest platform?’”

“How’s that working out for you?” Michael asked irritably.

“Drop it, Michael,” Faith finally said. “They don’t have footage. Arguing about it won’t change that.”

Michael glared at Faith. Sita cast a smug glance at him.

Her smug look vanished when Faith met her eyes. “Miss Bhandari, you should know that at this point in time, we believe that the murderer is an employee of yours.”

“An employee? Here? That’s not possible!”

“I’m afraid it is,” Faith said. “Granted, the security system you have is inadequate, but it’s still incredibly unlikely that the killer could have managed to kill and stage two individuals without being noticed by other staff, passengers, or any of the security cameras in the terminal at all. The only explanation that makes any kind of sense is that the killer is familiar with the security setup here and knew how to avoid detection. That means an employee.”

“Well, what about the people who constructed the terminal?” Sita said. “Couldn’t one of them be the killer?”

“Miss Bhandari, this terminal was constructed in 1914,” Faith said, “and the last remodel took place in 1929. There have been touchups since then, but this particular platform hasn’t had any new infrastructure installed in thirty years.”

Sita sighed and ran her hands through her hair. “This is impossible,” she said.

“And yet,” Michael quipped.

Sita was silent a moment. Then she said, “What would you like to do?”

Faith was about to say that she wanted to interview her employees, starting with those assigned to this platform, but before she could, Turk began to bark loudly.

Faith turned to see Turk staring down a tall, burly man walking across the platform. When he saw the dog, his eyes widened in alarm.

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