2019.

Seven cameras with two hundred hours of video on each, but it was fifteen seconds of footage that Kevin focused on. In those seconds, the door could be seen to open. Light cut into the darkness of the front hallway, and a figure stood there, silhouetted. Their left hand raised, and then the footage ended. Then all the footage ended. Every camera in every room cut out at that exact same time.

Kevin did not like that one bit.

“My first thought was EMP pulse,” said Danny, the voice on Kevin’s headset while he searched Edward’s apartment at Sunset Gardens. They both watched the monitor from inside the Crimson Wraith’s Crypt. “But EMP would be too messy, affect too many electronic devices in its range. In assisted living, that could include things like pacemakers, hearing aids, oxygen machines. That would get a whole lot of attention. No, this was directed, focused.”

“What does that leave us with instead?” asked Kevin.

“Okay, so you know where Sherlock Holmes says that, like, once you rule out all other options, it has to be whatever you’re left with, no matter how crazy?”

“Are we left with something crazy?”

“Yes we are. See, this person here had something that allowed them to specifically shut off all the cameras we had in that place, just them and nothing else.”

“Which would take?”

“First, they had to know the cameras were there. Then, they had to know the model of cameras and that they could be switched off remotely. Finally, they had to know what frequency to use to communicate with them.”

“That’s a lot to know.”

“It’s too much to know. Each camera is a custom piece, built in-house, running an operating system I designed. It shouldn’t be possible.”

“But that’s what happened.”

“If somebody knows all that, then they probably know a whole lot of other things. Maybe things about, you know, the rest of us. And who knows about us except…” Danny didn’t like where the sentence was going, and so broke it off.

Kevin finished it for him. “Except us?”

“Yeah.”

“Which suggests that someone who we’ve trusted with our secrets maybe wasn’t trustworthy after all.”

 “Why even do it, though? Why Eddie? I mean, not to be insensitive, but he didn’t have much time left. Couldn’t they wait it out and just let the man pass?”

“It doesn’t seem like there could be a rational motivation, so we have to look for an irrational one. And that again points to someone who knows us, someone with a personal vendetta who knew that Eddie had been the Crimson Wraith.”

“This is bad. This is real bad.”

“It’s not good,” said Kevin. “So, let’s start identifying suspects. You were able to get into the Sunset Gardens payroll files?”

“Took a bit, but yeah. Here are the print-outs of the personnel.” He handed Kevin a folder. “No new hires in the last ninety days. No terminations since Eddie’s murder. And not likely they’d be paying anyone under the table because they have to pass quarterly financial inspections to qualify for subsidies, which they’ve done the past five years.”

“So, whoever murdered Eddie had been there for a while and is working there still.”

“You’d think that if you murder someone, the next thing you do is get the hell out of town.”

“But they didn’t. That tells us something else.”

“What’s that?”

“Running away arouses suspicion, but it’s a strong instinct to resist. Whoever did this might be able to reject that emotion in favor of strategy.”

“Like a psychopath?”

“Potentially. Or there could be something else at stake, overpowering that. Maybe one of the staff has a loved one being threatened by a third party that gave them their orders.”

“Ugly.”

“On the other hand, they could also be very well supported, working in partnership with someone helping them resist the urge to flee.”

Danny stared long at the silhouette on the screen. “Kevin, man, I am liking this less and less.”

“There’s a lot not to like. I’m going to start investigating these employees, see whose shape might fit that of the person on the screen and watch their movements.”

“So, you’re going out tonight?”

“Yes, I’m afraid I won’t be home to welcome our guest.”

“Right. The new girl.” Danny pointed at the screen. “You sure this is a good idea, taking on a fresh face while we got this happening?”

“She needs help,” said Kevin. “And being new, she can’t have been involved with this. Whoever murdered Eddie had access to information about us, old information, which puts Gracie Chapel in the clear.”