He reviewed the video until it replayed in his head. He wanted to make sense of it, but he couldn’t. Especially with thoughts of Mackenzie taking up too much space in his head. Maybe he couldn’t multitask, after all.

The county sheriff’s department was handling the investigation into the shooting. But did Mackenzie need protection? He might not want to walk away from her this time, like he had three years ago, but what about her? Did she want him to insert himself into her life?

She’d been right in her assessment that seeing a drone wasn’t unusual. In fact, far too many of the intrusive flying vehicles were encroaching into places they shouldn’t go. He especially didn’t appreciate seeing the drone out in nature.

Throw in a shooter, and everything was bumped to the next level. He hadn’t caught a picture of the shooter, but he had pictures of the drone, and he would work with what he had. He’d given that image to the county sheriff’s offices too. But that didn’t preclude him from doing his own research.

He’d forwarded the drone image to his friend and tech guru Keenan Walker, who also worked for the DSS. Knowing Keenan’s thoughts on the drone was imperative. Alex gave him another call and prepared himself to learn everything about drones and probably more than he wanted to know. Then he would fill Keenan in on what he had learned about Hanstech—just the basic information he could gather from their website and company brochure, and only because Mackenzie had mentioned the company’s connection to drones.

“Walker here.”

“You got the image?”

“Got it, but I was in the middle of a project”—he cleared his throat—“for work.”

Alex heard the amusement in Keenan’s voice. “You’re the best, man. I wouldn’t trust anyone else with this.”

“You don’t need to butter me up, as the saying goes.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure you owe me more than a compliment.”

Alex laughed. “What have you got for me?”

“Just pulling it up here . . .”

Alex waited patiently, listening to Keenan typing on his keyboard for a few long seconds, then finally . . .

“The technical name for what we typically refer to as drones is UAS or unmanned aerial systems. This drone is the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom and is not something that would raise eyebrows. It’s a hobbyist drone.”

Alex released a slow exhale. “Then it could just be somebody invading privacy.” Except the active shooter incident could be related. Regardless, aerial surveillance was ridiculously invasive anymore.

“I didn’t say that.”

The problem with tech gurus was they wanted to make sure everyone knew how smart they were. “I’m listening.”