Snared (Elemental Assassin #16)(27)
“I’ve got the security footage ready to roll,” she said. “Each camera is on a different tab so you can toggle back and forth between all of them.”
“Thanks. I really appreciate this.”
Roslyn nodded. “Anytime. And please tell Jade that I’m sorry and that I hope Elissa turns up soon.”
“Do you know Elissa?”
“Not personally, but she’s a college kid. Sometimes I think that they live here at the club.” Roslyn smiled, but her expression quickly turned serious again. “I can’t imagine what Jade’s going through right now. If anything happened to Lisa or Catherine . . .”
Her voice trailed off at the thought of her sister and young niece. Roslyn shook her head. “Anyway, just holler if you need anything.”
“I will. Thanks, Roslyn.”
“Good luck.” She smiled at me again, left the office, and closed the door behind her.
I pulled the keyboard a little closer, grabbed hold of the mouse, and started going through the footage.
Roslyn’s state-of-the-art security cameras had a much higher resolution than the grainy ones from the country club, and she had a lot more of them showing both the inside and outside of Northern Aggression, plus some of the surrounding parking lots. Roslyn had fast-forwarded yesterday’s footage to about ten minutes before the cab had dropped off Elissa, so I watched the ebb and flow of people in, out, and around the club, looking for anything suspicious, unusual, or out of place.
Northern Aggression attracted all ages, from those barely old enough to drink to folks who’d spent a lifetime partying hard. Young, old, and every age in between moved through the footage, along with humans, elementals, vampires, giants, dwarves, and every combination thereof. The club also catered to a wide range of incomes, everyone from poor college students looking to have a few cheap beers to wealthy businessmen who only imbibed the most expensive liquors. The nightclub truly was Ashland’s melting pot.
The footage unspooled, and time passed, until at last a yellow cab cruised up to the club entrance. Elissa got out, paid the driver, and waited her turn in line to get inside. A few folks, men and women alike, tried to chat her up, but Elissa kept her eyes glued to her phone. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary happened, and no one suspicious approached her.
Once Elissa actually got inside the club at around eight thirty, I switched to the interior footage so I could track her movements. Instead of heading out onto the dance floor or over to the bar, she hugged the wall, keeping to the fringes of the crowd, her head moving back and forth. She was obviously searching for someone. But who? Maybe Silvio was wrong, and she had a guy on the sly, someone other than her official boyfriend.
I followed her through the footage. Elissa glanced down at her phone, then back out into the crowd. She started to move closer to the dance floor, but something caught her attention, and she turned toward the elemental Ice bar instead. She stopped short, her entire body stiff with shock, her mouth wide open in a silent O of surprise. She stayed like that for several seconds before a passing waiter bumped into her, jostling her out of her daze. Her face crumpled, her shoulders sagged, and she whirled around and started pushing her way back out of the club.
I stopped the footage and called up another angle, trying to see what had upset her. It took me a few minutes, but I realized that Elissa was staring at a guy and a girl at the end of the bar. On the footage, the two clinked their beers together before downing their drinks. Then the guy pulled the girl over onto his lap, and the two of them started doing things that were better left unseen. I zoomed in on the amorous couple, took a photo of their faces with my phone, and texted it to Silvio: Who are these people?
My trusty assistant texted me back less than a minute later. Guy is definitely Anthony Fenton, Elissa’s boyfriend. Girl looks like Rose Sears, one of Elissa’s friends.
And just like that, everything made sense. Maybe Elissa had suspected that Anthony was cheating on her. Maybe another friend had seen Anthony and Rose at the club and had tipped her off. Maybe she’d even put a tracking app on his phone, like Silvio had on mine. Either way, Elissa had found out that Anthony was at Northern Aggression last night, and she’d come here to see what he was up to—which was basically screwing another girl in plain sight.
And just to twist the knife in a little deeper, it hadn’t been some random girl but one of Elissa’s friends, someone who knew exactly how much Elissa liked Anthony. No wonder Elissa had rushed outside. I wouldn’t have wanted to stick around for that kind of betrayal either.
I put my phone aside and went back to the security footage. Elissa hurried out of the club, stumbled into the closest parking lot, and leaned up against the side of the first car she came to. Given the way her head was bowed and her shoulders were shaking, I could tell that she was crying her eyes out, something that she did for a good ten minutes. Lots of people walked by her, heading to and from the club, but a crying girl wasn’t an uncommon sight at Northern Aggression, and no one stopped to ask her what was wrong or offer any kind of help.
Finally, Elissa straightened up, wiped off her face, and made a call, probably for another cab. Then she started pacing back and forth in the parking lot, blowing her nose and wiping away a few more tears while she waited. Eventually, though, something caught her attention, something that made her stop pacing. She looked over to her right and stood there for several seconds, frowning.