Page 117 of The 6:20 Man

Bingo.

As he stared back into the building where the night security guard was at the front reception desk, an idea struck him.

He used his card to get back inside and walked over to the man.

It was the same guy as always. He grinned at Devine. “Trying to get a jump on tomorrow so soon?”

Devine smiled back. “No way. I’m done, but I did have a question.”

“Shoot.”

“You were on duty the night that Sara Ewes was killed?”

The man’s smile faded. He shook his head and closed his eyes for a moment. “That was some sick shit, man. Sick.”

“Yeah, it was. The cops have been talking to me and others here. Apparently, they said someone came into the lobby at midnight and then left at one ten a.m.”

“Nobody came in during that time.”

Devine looked startled. “What do you mean?”

“I make my rounds exactly at twenty past the hour. Takes me about twenty minutes. I have to key into certain areas so there’s an electronic trail. That means I was in the lobby at midnight and at one ten. Nobody came into the lobby that night. I can count on one hand the number of times someone came in that late, and I’ve been working here six years.”

“And you told the cops this?”

“Yes, I did. And I also told them what they needed to look at.”

“What was that?”

“The service entrance and elevator in the rear. Same security cards get you in there. And there’s a camera back there.” He pointed to the console, where there were video feeds on six different screens. “The one on the right over there. Shot of whoever’s outside that door. That’s one of the places I check every hour, just to make sure it’s secure. But you need a security card to get in and there’s a phone outside the door. During business hours, contractors have to call and we have someone go and let them in, verify they’re supposed to be there and all that.”

“Did the police check the feed from that camera to see if anyone came in that way the night Ewes was killed?”

“Since I was the one who suggested it, I did it for them.”

“So did anyone come in that way at the time window in question, midnight to four?”

“I figured if the dude didn’t come in the front, because I would have seen him, he came in that way. I ran the video feed back to like eleven o’clock, just to be sure.” He shook his head. “But there was nothing. Nobody was there.”

“Could the video have been manipulated, doctored?”

“I don’t know, man. I’m just the security guard. Not a computer whiz. After business hours no contractor rings that bell unless they got some special job and have to come in at night. But that’s all arranged beforehand. I don’t usually look at that camera during my shift. But the feed was clear, I can tell you that.”

“But won’t the security card show what entrance the person came through?”

“Not to my knowledge. Front or back door, it’s all the same. But the point is you need a card to get in. And the cops would have checked the entry log for that time. But I can tell you that the cameras were clear and I saw no one come in during the night. So I think whoever killed the lady was already in the building.”

What Devine knew that the guard didn’t was that the video had been doctored to make it look like he had come into the building during that time window. And his card had been cloned and the log manipulated to further incriminate him.

So the entry log and surveillance cameras are basically useless.

But the guard had suggested an intriguing possibility: Was the killer already in the building? That certainly could be the case, because it was really impossible to confirm that every single person had left Cowl and Comely that night. Including Brad Cowl.

The cops had made no mention of Ewes having had sex or being sexually assaulted or raped. Had Cowl tried to have sex with her and she refused? And in a fit of rage he had strangled her and then hoisted her up to cover up his crime? Cowl was physically capable of doing that. And he had clearly been frustrated by her rejection of his advances.

And Speers might have hit it on the head. Despite his denials, Cowl could have erased his own info from the electronic log, put Devine’s in, and then had someone at Cyber-Surgeon show Devine coming into the lobby at that time. Only the security guard would have blown that scheme all to hell. So even if the NYPD had gotten the entry log showing Devine coming in and even seeing him on the video camera, they would have been confronted with a real, live person saying that did not happen.

Electronic skullduggery apparently had its limits.

And maybe I have my limits, too. And I might be just about to reach them.

Devine walked off into the darkness.