Obsession & Eyewitness: Obsession / Eyewitness

“Huh?”

He ignored her question and brushed his fingers on the front of his sweatshirt, the muscle in his jaw jumping. He smoothed the tips of his fingers across the glass in a grid pattern—up and down and left to right. Then he moved on to the next quarter of the window. He sucked in a breath.

“What is it?”

Lightly, he traced the pads of his fingers over the rough spot on the windowpane. With his nose almost touching the glass, he scraped at the patch with his fingernail.

He held up his finger, dug the residue from beneath his fingernail with his other nail and rubbed the sticky substance between his thumb and forefinger.

“Colin, what did you find? Looks like a grain of sand to me, which wouldn’t be all that unusual.”

She’d crouched down beside him, and he extended his finger beneath her nose. “It’s adhesive.”

“Adhesive? You mean like tape?”

“Yeah, or more likely one of those two-sided adhesive strips.”

Her eyes widened and he could see flecks of gold in her irises. “What does that mean? I’ve never taped anything to the outside of this window.”

“I didn’t figure you had, which means someone else did.”

“How old is that stuff? It could’ve been my dad.”

He rolled the adhesive between his fingers. “It’s still sticky. Old stuff wouldn’t be sticky anymore, or it would be covered with sand. This isn’t.”

“I don’t get it, Colin.” A note of panic had crept into her voice and he cursed himself for being the one to keep bringing bad news into her life.

“Help me search the ground.” He tapped the window to replace the adhesive and dropped to his hands and knees. Michelle liked to keep active, to be involved.

“Wh-what are we looking for?”

“Anything out of the ordinary. A button. A cigarette butt. A chewing gum wrapper.”

She skimmed her hands across the sand, sifting her fingers through the silvery grains. “A button?”

“A button?” Colin sat back on his heels.

Michelle held out her cupped hand to him. “Not a button like from someone’s shirt, but a black button that looks like it could’ve broken off some machinery or something.”

Colin’s heart jumped in his chest as he held out a surprisingly steady hand to receive Michelle’s discovery.

She turned her hand over, dumping the object into his waiting palm.

He wedged the black disc between two fingers and brought it close to his face. He ran the pad of his finger along the smooth side of the disc, but it wasn’t so smooth.

The same sticky substance he’d collected from the window was present on the disc. He closed his fist around the button and cursed, a black fury beating wings in his chest.

Michelle dug her fingers into the sand. “What is it?”

Colin drew in a steadying breath to keep from smashing his fist into the wall of Michelle’s house.

“It’s a camera.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

PINPRICKS OF SHOCK raced along Michelle’s flesh. And then she laughed. “A camera? That little thing?”

But Colin didn’t get the joke.

He opened his hand and the black device in the middle of his palm stared at her, like an evil eye.

Her smile collapsed. “Tell me you’re kidding.”

“It’s a spy camera, but you don’t have to be James Bond to get one. Anyone can order one of these off the internet.”

“And what’s it doing on the ground outside my bedroom window?” She pressed her hand over her heart as if she could rein in its wild gallop.

Colin flipped the button over with his thumbnail. “It’s sticky on this side, just like the adhesive from your windowpane. Someone stuck this—” he held it up “—onto your window.”

Michelle tried to swallow, but her dry throat wouldn’t cooperate. “D-do you think that’s what he was trying to do last night? Place the camera?”

“Place it or retrieve it.”

“Once in place, why would he try to take it back?”

“The chips in these cameras are set to record for only so many hours.” He slipped the camera into the pocket of his sweatshirt. “Once the time is up, you have to retrieve them to download your recording.”

“Recording? Like a video camera?” The hair on the back of her neck stood at attention, and she had to grind her teeth to keep them from chattering.

“Yeah, it’s a video camera, Michelle.” They’d been squatting in the sand, and now Colin rose, hooking his hand beneath her arm.

Her knees quaked and she wedged her shoulder against the stucco wall of her house. Someone had been spying on her. Before she examined the why, she wanted to know the how. The how would make her feel more in control, make her take a detour from the land of feelings to the land of reason…and action.

“How does it work? How can something so small do so much work?”

The harsh lines around Colin’s mouth softened. “It’s those tiny computer chips. The device is remotely controlled. You can hook it up to your computer and download the video. This one looks like it needs a special attachment and maybe some special software.”

“That’s amazing.” And knowledge was power. She pushed off the wall and squared her shoulders.

“I’m sure you’ve heard about cases where these spy cameras were installed in women’s dressing rooms or bathrooms. The women don’t even notice them.”

“Do you know how to download the video?”

“If I had the right stuff on my PC, I could figure it out. But I have a better idea.”

“The police?” The wobblies came back in full force as Michelle thought about the cops on the Coral Cove P.D. watching video of her coming and going from her bedroom to her bathroom.

“Too slow. Too much bureaucracy.” He took her hand and pulled her away from the side of the house. “I have a buddy in the county sheriff’s department. Played football with him in high school. He does this sort of thing all the time.”