Page 25 of Lion & Lamb

12:23 p.m.

VEENA LIONwas sitting on a Paoli/Thorndale train headed to Ardmore holding a legal pad on which she wrote names, drew arrows, crossed names off, and added them again, ranking all the people who had a reason to kill Archie Hughes.

A dull gong from her phone interrupted her brainstorming. The gong meant a text from Janie, but when Veena flicked open the message, there was no text, only a camera icon.Okay, it’s story time.Veena tapped the image and listened over her earbuds.

On-screen was Janie, who had positioned her own smartphone to capture her desk with the computer’s display cocked at a precise angle to avoid glare or distortion. Always thoughtful, that Janie. “Apologies for all of the…awkward,” Janie said, waving her hands around as if to illustratethe awkward. “I received a small tsunami of files and footage from the DA’s office. I was going to cc you on all of it, but since it required a bit of explanation, I thought it would be easier to walk you through it. I mean, I can show you the whole thing when you get back to the office, but…okay, I’ll stop talking and just show you.”

Veena couldn’t help but note that right next to Janie’s keyboard was a half-demolished hoagie from Cosmi’s in South Philly. Specifically, the Godfather: prosciutto, soppressata, and enough roasted peppers and sun-dried tomatoes to stock a salad bar.

On the monitor, black-and-white surveillance footage from a section of the Ben Franklin Parkway.

“Okay, here’s the Museum of Art on the night of the Archie Hughes shooting. The interesting thing is that Archie’s car is parked just out of view.” Janie paused to take a bite of her hoagie, then continued to narrate through the prosciutto. “Sorry. I’m starving. Anyway, you can sort of make out a bumper.”

Janie tapped a few keys. The image zoomed into that bumper, then back out again.

“The weird thing is, Archie managed to stop his Maserati inside a perfect dead zone between two surveillance cameras.”

That can’t be a coincidence,Veena thought.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Janie said. “That can’t be a coincidence, right? I went back and checked on where those camerasshouldhave been aimed. Looks like both of them were angled approximately twenty-three degrees away from where they were supposed to be pointed, creating that dead zone.”

This was a setup, then. Either Archie Hughes was lured to that exact spot or someone had dumped him and his car there, which implied he had been shot and killed elsewhere.Please tell me you went back and checked when those cameras were moved,Veena thought.

“Before you ask,” Janie said, “I went back and checked both feeds. The cameras were moved six minutes and twenty-three seconds before the police discovered Archie Hughes’s body.”

There we go,Veena thought.

“But that’s not the best part,” Janie continued. “Watch this.”

She tapped a few keys and took a bite of her Godfather as the computer jumped to another stream of surveillance footage. It took Veena a couple of seconds to identify the location: Spring Garden Street, between Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth Streets, just a few blocks from the art museum. “Check outthisguy.”

On-screen, a white male hurried up the street, using his T-shirt as a mask to cover his nose and mouth; a gray hood covered most of his head.

“This was captured just minutes after a couple of patrol officers discovered Archie’s body. Definitely looks like he’s running for his life, doesn’t it?”

“There was a reference to him in the police report,” Veena said.

“Yes, but this is the first time he’s popped up on surveillance. We now have a better physical description.”

Could be an athlete,Veena thought.Maybe even a football player.

Transcript of encrypted message exchange between Veena Lion and Janie Hall

VEENA LION: Stellar work, Janie. Enjoy the rest of your Godfather.

JANIE HALL: Sorry about that, V., but a girl’s gotta eat. You headed to the Linc to figure out which member of the team had it in for Archie? Need me to prep some background files on the team?

LION: That would be fine, but no, I’m not headed to the stadium. I was just sitting here realizing that I need a window into the Hughes household.

HALL: Please don’t tell me you’re going to break into their mansion.

LION: Who am I, Cooper Lamb? I’m just going to follow your lead.

HALL: ???

LION: Can you send me the home address of their personal chef? The one the file said they’d just fired?

Chapter21

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