Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele
Heart 54

Chapter 54

+25 BONUS Chapter 54 [Atlas]

I don't know whether or not I want to hug my brother of punch him. Somehow he had found a pattern that the police had missed, even though they had been given a month so far to replace her.

"Why didn't you offer any of this to the police?" I wonder aloud. "Maybe this could have helped crack the case."

1 tried, but they informed me that all of this surveillance was technically illegal and that none of it would hold up in a court of law." He shrugged. "I tried there first before coming to discuss all of this with you. I had been..." he pauses before continuing "...hoping that could help without getting directly involved. If they had just taken my footage I'd..."

He doesn't need to finish his sentence. He probably didn't want to tell me about his surveillance of Cordelia and me. Considering how bad it makes him look, I can almost understand his motivation.

T

"I also wanted to verify some of my suspicions first before I came to you. So I hired a private investigator." He explains as he sets the various papers into piles. "She was able to come up with more details and replace a paper trail. Without her help, and this footage, I might not have discovered this.

He pulls up a few images on his screen, still frames from various locations. One is an image from the lobby of the hotel. Another is an image of the ballroom. The last one is an image from the hospital where Cordelia disappeared. "Do you notice anything about these pictures?"

I take a closer look. In the first one, there are dozens of people milling about and I cannot see anything significant. The second photo, that of the ballroom, has a similar feeling to the first with nothing significant to see. But in the third image, I see something that makes me gasp.

Cordelia is being wheeled away. While her face is cast in shadow, I recognize the bruise on her leg from the fall she had taken into the street weeks before. The man pushing her is hard to make out as well, but I can tell he has dark skin and a wide, muscular build. I take another look at the first two images and replace a waiter in both of them with the same muscular build.

I point at the screen. "Him, right there."

Clark nods. "It took me a minute to replace him, but I went back through several scenarios and found that he wasn't just in these photos, but in several other moments as well.

He brings up another still frame, this time it is one of a day I remember all too well.

Cordelia is sitting on the ground outside a cafe downtown. She has a nice dress shoved awkwardly into a pair of sweats, a hoodie over all of it, and a pair of oversized sunglasses to hide the tears streaked across her face. It is just across the street from the hotel where, soon after this shot was taken, she will replace me alone with Sydney and the infamous bottle of drugged wine.

And sitting near the window right behind her, watching her through the glass is a face I recognize all too well.

Chapter 54

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" I look up at Clark. "Is that Cordella's friend, Jude?"

+25 BONUS

"Her sometimes boyfriend?" Clark grumbles. "Oh yeah, that's him I'm pretty sure. Which is why I had him followed."

I arch my eyebrows, "Good work, Little Brother," I am truly impressed by his level of shrewdness, even if i am still a bit upset about how he went gathering his photographic evidence.

With a silent grin, I marvel as he shows me a paper trail connecting Jude to various pharmaceutical companies to purchase several different types of medical-grade sedatives and opiates. He also replaces the names of various properties under his name and other aliases that he has connected to his identity. "This," he shows me a photograph of a sailboat. The name "Angel" is painted on the side. "He sails to the Channel Islands once a month with supplies, mostly medical and food. I was able to access the local CTV cameras and looking back to the evening she vanished.

"Here," he pulls up his final image.

Draped across Jude's arms is the unmistakable form of Cordelia.

"When will he next sail out?" I sit to attention.

"In two days," Clark announces.

"Then we don't have very long to prepare ourselves."

VictoryAnne Vice Author