“Sir,” he says.

“Caleb. You’re here early.”

“Erik asked me to cover down here. I’m just watching surveillance tapes. I can do that from any desk.”

“Can you buzz us up?” I don’t need him to. Ocular recognition will clear me, but if he buzzes, it’s less hassle.

Caleb scratches behind his ear. “Ah, I’m supposed to check ID. I guess if she’s with you…” We have a strict protocol outlined for confirming identification. If he let her up without asking, I could conceivably fire him. Or at least, that’s the consequence for not checking ID outlined in the employee handbook Stella created.

“Her name is Dr. Alexandria Rolfe. Can you enter her into the system? Alex, do you have your license?”

“Oh, yes. I’m probably already in your system. I was here last week.”

“Right. You are. But I thought I’m supposed to check ID anyway?” Caleb directs his question to me.

“If you know who it is, it’s okay.” It’s good to see our system working. “But since you’ve pulled her up, can you give her full clearance? Dr. Rolfe can come and go without an appointment.”

“Yes, sir.”

Once the elevator doors close behind us, Alex leans against the back rail with a teasing smile. The playful expression has me wanting to press her up against the elevator wall. She’s the perfect height. She could lift one thigh—

“Is he former military, too?” Clearly, her thoughts are not the same as mine.

“Caleb?” The elevator slows to a stop, and I face forward. “If I recall correctly, he did a few years in the military, plus military academy. He’s a former LEO of some sort. He works for Erik and Kairi.”

“What’s an LEO?”

“Law enforcement officer.”

When we round the corner, activity buzzes. Employees sit in cubicles watching video with headsets on. Erik steps out of the conference room and waves us over. “Come see this.”

When we enter the conference room, Erik is back at his laptop, typing away.

Erik’s fingers don’t slow until black-and-white video footage of the side of Sullivan’s home in San Diego shows on the monitor at the end of the room.

“Did you see that?” Erik asks.

The video shows a palm frond fluttering in the wind. Nighttime. I cross my arms. He stops the video.

“Look closely,” he tells us and rewinds the video.

White lines at the top of the screen flick for a nanosecond. Inferior quality footage. Not unexpected, given the inferior surveillance system.

“Did you see it?” Erik asks.

“What am I supposed to see?” I step closer to the screen. The same palm leaf lifts in the wind.

“This is spliced. Someone went into the system and cut video from an earlier day, months earlier, and spliced it on the server. Fourteen hours’ worth. The only reason we ever caught it is because I had multiple resources studying the footage. They were smart. They inserted a wide segment with little to no activity.”

“So, where’s the real footage?”