Page 131 of In Cold Blood

The anticipation was killing him.

He hit stop. Sure enough, there was the silver van again, this time heading northwest.

This time it was clear.

“This footage can be doctored, right?” Noah asked.

“Edited, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, for sure. In editing software, you can slice and dice it up, pick out the pieces you want, and leave behind what you don’t.”

Noah patted him on the back. “Thank you. Mister…”

“Larson.”

He left that evening with enough evidence to blow the case wide open but knowing how easily things could be turned around and overlooked in police work, he needed a little more, something to tie it together, and he believed Mr. Larson had provided the key.

35

Monday, June 13

Noah was up at the crack of dawn with more drive than he’d ever had in his entire career. As eager as he was to proceed the night before, two conversations had to wait until morning.

Slowly but surely the fragmented picture was coming together.

With the shift change, most deputies were on patrol. Noah arrived to find the parking lot of the Adirondack Sheriff’s Office practically empty. He’d called Rishi the night before to ask him if he could come in early.

Sure enough, Rishi was outside the Sheriff’s Office, smoking in his souped-up Honda Civic and listening to rap. The thump vibrated as Noah sidled up to his window and knocked. He dropped the pane a few inches, allowing a cloud of cigarette smoke out and with it an earful of Ice Cube from back in his heyday.

Rishi cut the engine and got out.

“Thanks for coming in early,” Noah said.

“No problem. What’s this about?”

“You’ll see.”

He was working off a hunch, following a trail of breadcrumbs Luke had left behind in his own search for truth. As they stepped into the office that morning, no one else but Maisie Callaway, the receptionist, was there.

Her eyes widened. “Rishi Gupta. Are my eyes deceiving me or are you really here this early?”

“Hilarious,” he said as she buzzed them in.

They made a beeline for Rishi’s command center, at least that’s what he liked to call it. He slipped off his coat. He touched one of the screens and it lit up.

“So…?”

“I need a copy of the AVL of every staff member in the office, you think you can do that?”

“All of them?”

“All of them.”

“From what dates?”

Noah reeled them off.