Page 24 of Enigma

They stepped onto the elevator, and Jason hit the One button several times.

His erratic actions were out of character for him.

Olive crossed her arms and tried to sound casual as she asked, “What do you know about Nancy?”

“Not much. I call Dad every week, but he’s not one to talk much about his love life.”

“What did he say?”

He blew out a breath and rolled his eyes up as if thinking. “She’d been widowed three years earlier after a thirty-year marriage to a high school principal. She has two adult children—a daughter in Seattle and a son in Denver—who visit occasionally, but they have their own busy lives.”

“Anything else?” Olive pushed.

Jason shook his head. “Dad mentioned something about the fact that she wasn’t looking for someone to take care of her or make decisions for her. She values her independence, which my dad seems to like.”

Her gut tightened. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I don’t like this, Jason.”

His jaw tightened. “I don’t either.”

CHAPTER 14

The hospital’s security office was cramped and smelled like stale coffee.

Olive and Jason sat in uncomfortable plastic chairs while Security Chief Art Wheeler scrolled through surveillance footage on multiple monitors.

They’d already explained to Wheeler that they were professional investigators, which the man actually seemed impressed by. Some people didn’t take private investigators seriously, a stereotype Olive hated.

“There.” Wheeler pointed to one of the screens on his desk. “At 8:07.”

Olive leaned forward, watching as a grainy figure appeared in the hallway outside Lloyd’s room. Even with the poor image quality, she could make out Lloyd walking steadily down the hallway. He was fully dressed in street clothes and moving under his own power.

“He doesn’t look like he was being forced.” Jason’s words sounded casual, but his voice was tight with worry.

Wheeler continued to advance the footage frame by frame.

Olive’s breath caught when she saw a woman approach Lloyd in the hallway, linking her arm through his in whatcould have been a supportive gesture or subtle control. She was approximately the same height and build as Nancy, with similar graying brown hair. But the camera angle made it impossible to see her face clearly, and a black jacket now covered her clothing.

Could that be Nancy?

Or could it be the woman who’d tried to kill Lloyd at his house?

Right now, it could be either.

Olive leaned closer. “Can you enhance this?”

“This is as good as it gets with our system.” Wheeler offered an apologetic frown. “But I can tell you that whoever she is, she knew exactly where the cameras were. Look.”

He switched to a different angle, showing the same corridor from the opposite direction. The woman had positioned herself so that Lloyd’s body blocked most of her from view, and when she did step into the clear, she kept her head turned away from the lens.

“That almost looks like a professional move,” Olive murmured.

“Most people don’t think about camera placement when they’re just helping someone leave a hospital. But this woman . . .” Wheeler shook his head. “She mapped our blind spots.”

Jason shifted, still staring at the screen. “What about the parking garage?”

Wheeler switched to another monitor, showing the hospital’s parking structure. “Here they are.”

The footage showed Lloyd and the woman walking toward a dark sedan. Again, the woman seemed to know exactly how to position herself to avoid clear identification.