Reid played it again, this time in slow motion. He paused the video as the shadow materialized. “Son of a bitch,” he murmured.

Harper tapped the screen. “A person. Half a head, shoulder.”

“Too dark for any ID.”

“What’s the timestamp?”

“Twelve twenty-two.”

“Okay. Let’s check the parking lot feed at that timestamp. See what we get.” Harper glanced back at Dani. “You okay?”

Dani nodded. “Just trying to stay out of your way.”

But Harper scooted her chair over. “Come sit with us. You might catch something that we miss.”

Dani seriously doubted that, considering Harper had been able to spot the shadow of half a person—a shadow that was on the screen for all of a nanosecond. She pulled up a third chair anyway, sitting down beside Harper. Their knees touched as they both leaned forward, closer to the monitor. Neither of them pulled away and she wondered if it was only her imagination that she felt Harper press a little harder against her.

“There he is!” Reid said excitedly.

Dani’s eyes widened as the shadow of a man came into full view. He was dressed in black, head to toe. From inside his jacket, he pulled out the Raggedy Ann doll and placed it carefully on the car. Then, as if it had been planned all along, he balled his hands into fists and banged them loudly against the car’s hood.

“And there’s our loud noise,” Harper said.

The man took off in a flash, disappearing from the camera’s view. Reid backed the video up and replayed it, slower this time. When he enlarged the frame, the man’s face was distorted, clearly covered by a ski mask or something.

“So he made the noise on purpose,” Dani said. “Why?”

“Maybe he wanted us to find the doll last night.”

“But he didn’t hang around. He took off,” Reid said.

“Has to know there’re cops here,” Harper said as she leaned back in her chair, her eyes staring at the ceiling now. “Or maybe that’s how he dresses when he’s out and about.”

“He was in clown makeup when he found us at the IHOP,” Dani reminded her. “That’s not to say he doesn’t have it on under the mask.”

“He made the noise, hoping to wake us up and have us find the doll. Maybe hoping we’d take off again like we did the night before.”

“And when you didn’t—”

“He’s got to think we feel safe here…and that we’ve got cops here,” Harper finished for him.

“Or else you never woke up,” Reid said. “He could have been sitting all night, across the street or something, waiting. He may have seen us this morning when we were inspecting the doll. In which case, he knows for sure there are cops here.”

“That’s a dangerous game he’s playing.” Harper stood up. “Dangerous or stupid.”