Against All Odds
was murdered, a different number called that particular morning.”“Belonging to whom?”
“Don’t know. It came from a payphone in a Washington park.”
“Which one?” Hawk asked.
“Rock Creek. There’s still a payphone attached to one of the restroom walls.”
“Sit tight,” Hawk said. “I’m coming to get you, and we’ll go take a look ourselves.”
“I’ll bet there’s a camera there.”
“That would make things easier.”
“Hang on a sec while I check,” Alex said. She clicked away on the keyboard before going silent as she studied the results of her search.
“You find anything?” Hawk asked.
“You’re gonna love this. There are three security cameras focused on the public restroom at the east end of Rock Creek Park. I remember reading a while back that several women had been raped there.”
“So, extra cameras to curtail any would-be rapists. Smart.”
“Lucky us, right?”
“Indeed,” Hawk said. “That changes our plans a little. Any idea where all the footage for these cameras is kept?”
“The city’s parks and recreation office has a location downtown where they’re all stored. But I’m not sure they’ll let us look at them.”
“What about our Homeland Security credentials? Blunt made sure we had them for situations just like these. It lists us as employees of the president’s special task force.”
Alex smiled. “I almost forgot about those. I’ll make sure I put my hands on them now.”
* * *
THE CRAMPED ROOM in the basement of Washington’s parks and recreation office smelled musty. Overhead, an interwoven highway of pipes and wires splintered off near various doors along the hallway. Hawk glanced down at the faded tile, which was chipping around the corners where the squares met.
Hawk suggested Alex knock on the door and enter first in an effort to make sure their first interaction with the guardian of the security footage got off to a friendly start. She rapped on the doorjamb and poked her head around the corner.
“Hello? Is anyone here?” she asked.
Hawk leaned inside to see if the room was empty. A portly gentleman with a wispy comb over was slurping on a straw in an oversized plastic cup. He slowly turned around in his swivel chair, looking up at both of them over the top of his reading glasses that rested on the tip of his nose.
“May I help you?” he asked in a baritone voice.
“Special agent Duncan from Homeland Security,” she said, flashing her badge. “We were wondering if we might be able to speak with you about getting a peek at some footage outside one of your park restrooms.”
The man stood and tugged on his belt. He wiped his hand on his pants and offered it to Alex.
“Kent Carson,” he said as Alex shook his hand.
“This is special agent Hawk,” Alex said. “He’s tagging along with me this afternoon to help with the investigation.”
“Investigation?” Carson asked, his eyes widening. “Was there a murder?”
She nodded. “A little over a week ago. We’re just trying to rule out a couple of suspects by matching their alibis.”
“And you think my cameras will help you determine that?”
“One of the suspects claims he was jogging in the park and showed us his route,” Alex said. “We should be able to see him on one of the cameras if he’s telling us the truth.”
“Okay,” Carson said, settling back down into his chair. “Give me the time and date, and I’ll see what I can do.”
Alex scribbled down the date and time on a scratch sheet of paper and then handed it to him.
Carson’s eyes widened. “Got an early bird here. 5:00 a.m.?”
“So he says,” Alex said.
“And the park name?”
“Rock Creek.”
Carson nodded. “Give me a minute, and I’ll see what I can come up with.”
As he pounded on the keyboard, Carson’s eyes scanned the screen. True to his word, he located the file in just under sixty seconds.
“Found it,” he announced. “Come see if this is what you’re looking for.”
Alex hustled around to the other side of the desk, joining Carson. She peered at the screen, verifying that the time stamps were correct. Starting the footage at 4:55 a.m., he slowed it down to normal speed. They all stared patiently at the screen, divided into four different camera angles.
“This is all we’ve got for Rock Creek,” Carson said, pointing at the screen. “As you can see, the top two images are focused on the restrooms near the north entrance, and the bottom two are near the south entrance.”
Less than thirty seconds later, the bottom set of screens turned into static.
“Is that normal?” Hawk asked.
Carson shook his head. “We just had them all serviced about a month ago. As far as I know, they’re in top working condition. See.”
He pointed at a bank of monitors on the far wall, framing the same locations.
“Fast forward if you don’t mind,” Alex said.
Carson obliged, speeding up the footage rate. The static remained on the bottom screen until about 5:05 a.m.
“Well, would you look at that?” Carson said. “Back online and functioning properly.”
“Could it have been a power outage?” Hawk asked.
“Nope,” Carson said. “We’ve had that happen before, but they’re on the same power circuit. If a portion of the grid went down temporarily, they would’ve both gone out.”
“And these cameras don’t have a backup power source?” Alex asked.
“They do, but whatever caused this wasn’t due to lack of power,” Carson said. “If it was just some sort of weird electrical issue, the cameras wouldn’t have still continued to record.”
“Well, that’s just strange,” Hawk said.
“You’re not kiddin’,” Carson said. “Sorry I couldn’t be of any more help to you.”
Alex shrugged. “Nothing you can do about that. We appreciate your time, sir.”
“Hey, you might want to check with one of the banks across the street from that entrance,” Carson said. “They have cameras everywhere and might have captured the person you’re looking for.”
“Thanks for the tip,” Alex said before turning and exiting the building with Hawk.
“Now if I didn’t think there was something off about this hit before, I do now,” Hawk said.
“Yeah, we’re dealing with a serious professional,” Hawk said. “We need to be extra careful.”