Night Watch (Kendra Michaels #4)(43)

“It’s crazy,” she said flatly. “He needs help, and I think he was on the verge of asking me for it. He backed off at something I said.” She shook her head. “Or maybe everything I said. Anyway, he changed his mind. But I have to find him.”

“It’s looking very much like he doesn’t want to be found.”

“Tough. I’m still going to do it.”

*

THEY ARRIVED AT THE BALDWIN HILLS Walmart store just a few minutes ahead of Metcalf. The three of them walked in together and were taken through a maze of corridors to the spartan office of the store manager, a trim African-American man dressed in a crisp white shirt and a striped tie.

“Derek Collins,” he said as he stood and shook hands with each of them. He gestured for them to walk with him down the concrete-floored corridor. “We’ve been pulling all the video we have from that night. Our security manager has compiled and ordered video from the different camera feeds and burned them to a DVD for you guys.”

“Thank you,” Kendra said. “I didn’t realize you were set up for that kind of thing.”

“We’re not, really. You’ll also get the raw video. Our guy just happened to be handy with laptop and editing software.” He smiled. “Like a lot of people under thirty.”

He turned into the security office, where a bank of monitors lined the far wall. A stocky young man looked up from his laptop. “Hi, I’m almost done.”

“This is Larry Delmos,” Collins said. “Larry’s the assistant security manager and he pretty much runs the surveillance camera system for us.”

“It doesn’t have to be a polished Hollywood production,” Kendra said as she walked over to his laptop.

Delmos flashed a toothy grin. “Too late. I stitched the feeds together into chronological order. I thought it would be more helpful to you that way.”

He spun the laptop around for them to see. The first image showed a man walking through the parking lot. “Here he is approaching the entrance.”

“Did you get the car?” Lynch asked.

“Afraid not. He either came to the center on foot or parked next door to stay out of range of our parking-lot cameras. But here, look. He walked in through the front doors and goes immediately back toward the hardware section.”

Kendra watched as the various angles showed Waldridge’s journey past a soda display, stacks of Rubbermaid storage containers, and finally to the hardware aisles, where he spent a few moments looking over the shelves. He fumbled as he picked up a red-and-white bottle.”

“Is that Iron-Out?” Kendra asked.

The manager squinted at the screen. “Yes.”

They watched as he made his way through the store, picking up the cleaning supplies, and finally to the pharmaceuticals, where he picked up a large brown bottle that had to be the hydrogen peroxide. He then took his purchases to the checkout stand, where they saw the same footage they had watched at the FBI field office. After that he exited the store and a parking-lot camera captured him walking out of camera range with his purchases.

“Scan back,” Kendra said. “Take us back to where he first entered the store.”

The video clips sped back to Waldridge’s entrance. Just as he was about to leave the frame, Kendra pointed, and called out, “Stop!”

The image froze and she pointed to the doors, where a man in a long jacket and a baseball cap had entered. “See?”

Lynch nodded. “Yes, but he doesn’t seem to be with Waldridge.”

“Just wait,” she murmured.

As they watched the other shots of Waldridge in the store, the other man followed from a distance, stopping and appearing to look at items every time Waldridge paused.

“Waldridge was being followed,” Metcalf said.

“It’s more than that,” Kendra said. “They make brief eye contact several times. Watch.”

Waldridge appeared to glance at the man as he picked up the hydrogen peroxide bottle.

“You’re right,” Lynch said. “They were together. And notice how this guy uses his hat to keep his face from the camera.

“He doesn’t want to be seen, yet he needs to be there,” Kendra said.

“He could be keeping a leash on Waldridge,” Metcalf said. “Maybe making sure he doesn’t talk to anyone.”

Kendra watched for another moment. “Scan back to the hardware aisle. I want to see something.”

Delmos scanned back to the hardware section, where Waldridge fumbled as he picked up the Iron-Out.

“That moment there,” she said. “See how his hand hesitated and makes a couple grabs at that bottle? He’s usually very precise with his movements. He’s a surgeon. This is unusual for him.”

“He could have just been nervous,” Metcalf said.

“Maybe.” Kendra stepped closer to the monitor before turning to face the manager. “Take me there.”

“Sure. This way.”

They followed the manager out of the office and back onto the sales floor, where they made their way to the aisle they had just viewed on the video. The manager stopped and pointed to the bottles of Iron-Out. “Here’s where he was standing. The camera was inside that dome on the ceiling, and the other guy you were looking at was standing about three aisles to the right.”