go back to the regular image,” she requested.
When he did, she instructed him to keep going and then watched in silence as an obvious argument erupted between her sister and Montgomery. It escalated quickly. Within a few minutes, the casino owner gave up trying to reason with Candace and was signaling to someone.
Natalie didn’t need to guess who. She pressed her lips together as she watched Matt come on the scene. Very politely, he took hold of Candace’s arm.
Her stomach churned as she saw her sister turn up her charm. She was obviously playing up to Matt. Had she been right after all? Had there been something between the two of them?
There’d been rumors circulating that he had been one of Candace’s lovers. There’d even been some talk that he had fathered one of her sons. Given the boys’ ages, that would have meant that he had returned to Vegas, at least for a little while, six years ago. It didn’t make any sense.
Trying to sort through her feelings, Natalie’s head began to ache. She didn’t know what to believe. All she knew was that she’d never felt as alone—and lonely—as she did right at this very moment.
Her hand to her forehead, she went on watching. Matt brought her sister to the casino’s front entrance, just as he had told her that he had. And, also as he had said, he then stood there for several minutes, looking out. Presumably watching Candace walk away and making sure that she didn’t attempt to come back.
All right, from all appearances, Candace left the casino. Did she hook up with someone just outside? Or did someone, captivated by that damn ring she kept sticking in people’s faces, follow her home? All these questions nagged at her. She needed answers.
“Can we get a shot of the outside of the casino?” she asked Wilson.
He hesitated. “I’d have to access the footage from the valet area,” he explained.
She didn’t want excuses. “Just do it,” she instructed.
“Yes’m,” Wilson mumbled into his disappearing chin. Again, his fingers flew across the keyboard almost like independent digits. They seemed to be going at just under the speed of light. Natalie could feel her impatience mounting as the tempo increased.
And then Wilson accomplished his goal. He got the right footage. Candace was seen from another angle, this time from the outside of the building. She was moving away from the entrance.
She was pouting like a child who had been refused the toy she desired. And then, just like that, her face lit up again.
A beat later, she’d moved offscreen.
Natalie half rose in her seat. “Where is she going?” she demanded. When Wilson didn’t answer her, she looked at the computer technician expectantly. “Get me the tape from the next camera.” To clarify, she pointed at the screen. “The one to the right of this one.”
“I—I can’t,” Wilson stuttered.
“What do you mean, you can’t?”
The tech looked completely intimidated. “I—I would if I—I could, ma’am, but that one is—is down.” As he spoke, his stutter became more pronounced.
God, now she was scaring geeky technicians, Natalie thought, feeling guilty.
She took a breath, then released it, trying her best to sound less threatening. Inside, she was tied up in knots. She was certain that whoever killed her sister was just offscreen.
“What do you mean it’s down?”
“As in not working,” Matt told her easily, coming up behind her chair. She swung around to face him. “It happens.”
She didn’t believe in coincidences. Someone had put that camera out of commission. “Conveniently,” she bit off.
Matt moved so that his back was to the computer and he could see her better. “As a matter of fact, very inconveniently.”
All right, whoever Candace had seen wasn’t on camera. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t find out who it was. “I want to talk to all the valets who were parking cars last night,” she told him.
Matt inclined his head. “That can be arranged,” he told her. And then he smiled at her and said, “Ask me nicely.”
She gritted her teeth together. Maybe this was entertaining him, but she meant business.
“I want to talk to the valets who were parking cars last night or you’re going to suddenly find yourself a guest of the city for impeding a homicide investigation.” She shot him a warning look. “And I promise you, Schaffer, you really won’t like the accommodations.”
He crossed his arms before him. “That wasn’t asking nicely, Natalie,” he observed.
She jumped up to her feet. “Look—” But she got no further.
Because, just then, Adam Parker and Miles Davidson pushed open the door and walked into the surveillance room.
Both men looked as surprised to see her as she was to see them.
Parker frowned at her. “You wouldn’t be conducting an investigation into your sister’s death after the captain gave you explicit orders not to and put you on bereavement leave, would you Rothchild?” he asked.
Natalie didn’t know if the question was tongue in cheek or not. She was pretty certain the men would turn a blind eye to her pursuing leads as long as it wasn’t right in front of them. This put all three of them in an awkward position.
“As a matter of fact, Natalie’s here visiting me,” Matt informed the detectives genially. Both men looked rather dubious. “We used to be close,” he went on. “I invited her in here so that I could keep an eye on the monitors while we caught up on old times.” As he talked, he approached the detectives. Passing Wilson’s desk, Matt pressed a key on the board so swiftly that the movement was all but imperceptible.
Except that Natalie saw him.
A long, narrow bar appeared on the bottom of the screen, indicating that something was currently being saved.
Matt deliberately placed his body before the two detectives and in front of Wilson’s computer, effectively blocking it.
He looked from one man to the other. “I’m Matt Schaffer, head of Montgomery Enterprises security.” He shook each detective’s hand in turn. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Yeah.” Parker nodded toward the computers in general. “You can hand over all your surveillance tapes from last night.”
Matt remained unfazed. “That’s a tall order, detective. Do you have a subpoena?”
Parker reached into his inside pocket and took out an envelope. “Right here.”
Natalie felt her heart sink.
Chapter 6
He smiled to himself as he watched the news on the flat-panel TV in his dreary apartment. Another building blocked sunlight
