“We started from the most recent tape and worked backwards. There’s nothing incriminating on them so far. Not a hint of any illegal activity. No talk of guns, alcohol, or anything even mildly interesting. We’re over halfway done and there’s nothing to clean up.”

I stare at him in shock.

“That’s impossible,” I say. “I put a bug in their tattoo shop where they’ve been selling the alcohol out of for years. The surveillance cameras were pointed at the back door of the shop. I watched the first week of tapes and there were tons of transactions.”

Erik shrugs.

“I don’t know what to tell you. When were the bugs and surveillance cameras set up? Did you do them all yourself?”

“Yeah, I placed the bugs because I was the only one who could get access to the tattoo shop without suspicion. And I placed the surveillance camera on a utility pole two weeks before I went there to capture the back alley.”

“I have a suspicion about something,” he says. “There’s a possibility the Steel Infidels suspected at some point that they were under investigation. We need to look at the tapes and see when the illegal activity stopped. Maybe they were on to you.”

“No way,” I say. “And I swear I’m not imagining things. Take a look at the first week of tapes and you’ll see what I mean.” I follow him into the office and pull out the first day of tapes. He cues it up then fast-forwards the tape.

“There!” I say when the back door of the shop opens and Sam steps out into the alley. “Slow it down.”

We watch in slow motion as a man walks up and hands Sam cash. Sam reaches back inside the door, pulls out a bottle, and hands it to the man.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Erik says. “Looks like we’re in business now.”

As the tape rolls, a steady stream of customers files in and out of the alley behind the shop. Every time I see this, I want to reach through the screen and throttle Sam. Watching him casually break the law right out in the open where anyone could see him is infuriating.

“Cleaning this up isn’t going to be easy,” Erik says. “Look at him. Half the damn town is swinging by after work to do business.”

“Can we dub over it with another tape to make it look like the alley is empty with no activity?”

“That’s the only thing we can do. There’s no way we can fix each individual incident. There are too many. Has anyone else from the ATF seen these tapes?”

“No, thank God,” I say. “It’s my job to collect and organize all of the tapes. Then to go through them carefully and lay out the case.”

Erik looks worried.