Devil’s in the Details by Sydney Gibson Page B

people know better."
    I clenched my jaw, "What is your point?" I was agitated now. I had looked up at the one far off parking lot camera. Gauging the distance, I was sure that it was a fixed one that only watched the upper level of the concrete parking structure.
    "The point is, I had to go in and scrub the hospital footage before pining it on a fumbling security guard who was deleting last month's footage. I just dumped that night's footage into it right before he hit delete. The poor guy will probably be fired when the hospital has to pull out that footage when that warrant request is finally granted." Dani was rambling before she paused, "If the old man got wind of this..."
    I cut her off, "I know." I leaned forward to rest my elbows on the desk top, "Thank you, Dani."
    "No problem, Professor. Like I said you are my favorite." I heard her sigh quietly, "Do you want me to have the cleaning crew go check out your brunette's apartment? See how much she has on you?"
    I twirled my red pen. I knew that a cleaning crew being sent in would raise some concerns that I would have to sweep under the rug. It would also put a target on the woman, one that would cycle back to me with orders to eliminate her. "You said she only ran my picture?"
    "Yup, and it took her right to the Naval Academy website, straight to your horrid faculty photograph. I dug around in her web history and there’s nothing more than a handful of visits to a Netflix account and then a map to a small suburb up in Sperryville from her loft in the city." I heard Dani click a few keys, "It's waiting in your email." Dani's voice told me she already knew what I was intending to do.
    "Thanks. I can take it from here. I’ll let you know if I find anything, but please..."
    It was Dani's turn to cut me off, "Got it, Professor. Loose lips means we both end up dead." Dani hung up after issuing a quick goodbye.
    Throwing the phone on top of the essays, I opened up my laptop and waited for it to power up. I was internally chastising myself. I never, ever, made mistakes. I had made one mistake a long time ago that led me into this life I now lived.
    Clicking on the email from Dani, I opened the file. Looking over this Alexandra's internet browsing history for the last forty-eight hours, stopping as I stared face to face at the blurry image from the parking lot. I shook my head, "This is why you don't get involved." I hit print, grabbing the full address and small map that would take me to her apartment. Dani had also sent over the brunette's phone records, telling me that she had just made a phone call from Sperryville in the last five minutes that traced back to an address where a woman by the name of Katharine Ivers lived.
    Running a quick background check on the woman as I walked back upstairs to change, I found the sixty-one year old woman to be her mother.
    Giving me hope that Alexandra had returned to her mother's to recuperate for a few days.
    Stripping down out of baggy old jeans and loose USN sweatshirt I had worn all day, puttering around the house and the yard, I pulled out the ubiquitous uniform of tight black running pants and black long sleeved running shirt from the closet. Walking past the large mirror on the back of the closet door, reflecting the image of my naval uniforms lined up perfectly to form a muted rainbow of khaki to dark blue and ending in the crisp snow white of my full dress uniform, I also caught the reflection of a memory that I always did my best to ignore whenever a mirror and I were in the same room.
    A memory that I couldn’t erase, but only cover up with clothing and hide from my direct thoughts. Which I quickly did before I gathered my hair in a ponytail and rushed back downstairs. Only pausing on the way to the garage to pick up the well-worn black duffel bag that Dani called my "plumbers toolbox" from the coat closet, before rushing out the side door to the garage.
    Flopping down into the plush burgundy leather seat of the silver BMW X5