My fight was gone. “I’m sure. Go back ten minutes before the blast.”
He did. Ten minutes played in less than thirty seconds. The explosion made me gasp. Adler’s hand came down on my shoulder as I wiped a tear from my tired eyes. There was nothing preceding it, just a catastrophic eruption. Obviously the means to produce such an explosion had been in place for an event such as this.
I agreed that on the video there was no activity on the grounds. If Richards had received a warning call, he hadn’t heeded it.
“Is there any way he could have known earlier?” I asked out of desperation.
“It’s doubtful. The timeline is tight.”
While Adler answered, Brady brought up the video again and rewound to sixty minutes before the explosion. Moments after he put the time-lapsed footage in motion, I saw a blur of white in the darkness near the pool. The lights around the pool were the only illumination on the rear grounds.
“Wait,” I said. “Go back and run it in real time.”
Both men stilled as Brady did as I asked. Thankfully, the government had sophisticated cameras with immense zooming capabilities. Though it was grainy, there were definitely two figures who appeared to have run the length of the yard, the exact trek I’d run the day before.
“Was she wearing white?” Brady asked, interest as well as concern in his voice.
“No, not when I left, but, shit, I remember there were other women there in white. It could be one of them, or it could be that they made her change clothes.” The possible reasons for the change of clothes turned my stomach. I wouldn’t allow myself to let my thoughts linger there as I stared at the screen.
“It’s difficult to see the other figure. I’d assume it’s a man.”
“Have they thoroughly checked the outbuildings?”
“Yes, and the wooded area. No one’s there.”
“There’s a back gate. Can you access the video of that gate?”
Brady shook his head. “No, the main center for the surveillance was in the house. When it blew, we lost our connection.”
“That neighborhood is within Bloomfield Hills and is gated,” Adler said.
“Yes?” I asked, wondering where he was going with that.
“The neighborhood has cameras!” Brady said.
My exhaustion gave way to one last surge of adrenaline. “Can you . . . ?”
I didn’t even need to finish my question before the screen came alive with nearly twenty feeds time-stamped at 00:00:00 Tuesday morning. The house wouldn’t blow for over an hour, but in general the streets and intersections were quiet, except for a late-model black SUV. It stopped at one stop sign long enough for us to see the driver.
“Shit! It’s him!” I said, the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention as Dylan Richards’s image came into view.
“I don’t see anyone else in the vehicle,” Adler said.
“But we saw the woman in white near the pools. If the bureau has thoroughly investigated the rear grounds and there’s no one, or no body, down there, she has to be in the vehicle. I can’t imagine him taking any of the other women from that house. It has to be Sara. I told you, she’s not dead.”
Brady isolated the SUV and followed it to another home within the neighborhood. Once he zeroed in on the home, a smaller screen emerged and we were shown the owner of the home: Motorists of America.
I turned with my brow furrowed. “What the hell is that?”
“It’s a shell corporation. One that’s been on our radar as part of the Shadows. It’s worth millions, probably more.”
“So even stopping the production at the Northern Light won’t stop the money?”
“It will stop the influx of new money. There’s already a good amount out there. We just need to prove that it was obtained illegally. Hell, it could make a small dent in the national debt.”
“Send agents to that house now.”
While Agent Adler dialed, Brady switched to a time-lapsed feed of the house. With the time stamp reading 03:04:50, another SUV pulled up to the house. A man and woman got out and went into the house. I looked at my watch. That had been about an hour ago. By the time Special Agent Adler had given the order to go to the house, Brady had the screen on the live feed.
Less than two minutes after the order was given, three people came out of the house and got into the new SUV. It was the new man and woman plus Richards.
“Shit! What the fuck just happened?”
Special Agent Adler’s eyes narrowed. “Shit!”
“There must be agents at the mansion. Get someone there now! Catch him!” I was screaming orders at men, one of whom was my superior.
Brady followed the SUV through the streets of the neighborhood; however, once the SUV left the gates of the subdivision, we lost the feed.
“I gave them the license number. We need to sit tight,” Brady said.
“Please.” I turned to Agent Adler. “I need to be on a plane to Detroit.”
Special Agent Adler nodded. “I’m going with you.”
CHAPTER 38
Stella