The Crucifix Killer(66)

‘So?’ Hunter asked.

‘He’s coming over.’

Hunter scanned the small TV monitors in front of Stu’s desk. ‘How many cameras in total?’

‘One over each bar, one over the dance floor entrance, one above the fire exit, two out on the patio, one over the club entrance, one in each of the two corridors that lead to the bathrooms, three over the dance floor and two over the VIP area,’ Stu said, pointing to a different monitor with each new camera he mentioned.

The door opened and a short man dressed in an immaculately pressed pin-striped suit walked in. He was about five-foot five and the bad acne from his youth had left his pale face pitted like a sponge. His thick bushy eyebrows made him look like a cartoon character. He introduced himself as Tevez Lopez, the security manager.

‘We need to see all your CCTV footage from last Friday,’ Hunter said wasting no time with frivolous explanations.

‘What exactly are we looking for?’

‘A young woman was abducted last Friday. We have reason to believe she might’ve been abducted from this club. We need to check those tapes.’

Tevez and Stu looked worried for a moment. ‘We might have a problem here, Detective,’ Tevez said.

‘Why?’

‘We only keep our recordings for two, maybe three days; last Friday has been erased.’

‘What? Why?’ Garcia asked with frustration.

‘We have no need to keep it,’ Tevez offered casually. ‘If we had no problems on the night, no fights, no money’s gone missing from the tills, no drug-related incident, we see no point in holding on to the recordings. You see, Detective, everything is digital in this day and age. We have about thirteen cameras recording something like twelve to fifteen hours every night and that uses a hell of a lot of hard-drive space. Once we’re satisfied the night has gone on without a problem, we erase it to make room for the new recordings.’

Both detectives were stunned by Tevez’s statement. Probably the only ever footage of the killer, erased to save disk space. Hunter knew an opportunity like this would never come up again. He turned and faced the monitors.

‘You have no hard copy?’ Garcia questioned.

‘No, as I’ve said, there’s no need.’

‘Wait, can you zoom in on this camera,’ Hunter pointed to the top left monitor.

‘Sure.’ Stu twisted a knob on his desk and the monitor image zoomed in to three times its original size.

‘Who is this?’ Hunter pointed to a long-haired man seated in the VIP area. D-King and Jerome were sitting in front of him.

‘That’s Pietro, one of our barmen, but he’s not supposed to be in the VIP area,’ Tevez replied.

‘We’ll need to talk to him.’

‘Sure, would you like me to call him up here now?’

Hunter looked around the control room. It was hardly an appropriate place for an interview. ‘Do you have another room we could use?’

‘You could use my office, it’s just down the corridor.’

‘Wait until he’s finished talking to whoever it is he’s talking to and then call him up. We’ll wait in your office.’ Hunter didn’t want Tevez to know he’d already made D-King’s acquaintance.

Tevez’s office was small but well decorated. A square mahogany desk sat towards the back of the room. To its right, a neon-illuminated fish tank gave the office a nice personal touch. An array of shelves filled with photographs and books covered the entirety of the east wall. The loud music from the dance floor was muffled but still audible, making the floor under their feet tremble slightly but constantly. They’d been waiting for about five minutes when Pietro came in to greet them.

‘Mr Lopez said you’d like to talk to me,’ Pietro said after the usual introductions.

‘That’s right. Your conversation with Bobby Preston, what was it about?’ Hunter saw no need for beating around the bush.

The look on Pietro’s face told them that he didn’t recognize the name.

‘D-King, your conversation with D-King,’ Garcia clarified.

‘Was it about this girl?’ Hunter showed him Jenny’s picture.

Pietro was visibly nervous. All of a sudden he’d had D-King and the cops asking him questions about Jenny. ‘Yes, he wanted to know if I’d talked to her last Friday.’

‘And did you?’

‘Yes, briefly.’

‘Can you remember what time?’

‘It was around two in the morning.’

‘What did you talk about?’

Pietro felt as if he were in an episode of The Twilight Zone. D-King had just asked him exactly the same questions.

‘Nothing important. She looked tired so I asked her if she wanted a drink. We only chatted for about a minute. I had to get back to serving customers.’