Chapter 9
Leo handed over a notebook.
He kept it inside his boxing bag.
Pages of observations filled the margins.
Gate 3 blind for 19 seconds during shift change.
West stable door alarm delayed.
Uncle Dante exits council room faster when Lily cries.
Dante stopped reading.
“Marcus told you to write this?”
“He said real security people notice patterns.”
“Did Grant know?”
“Sometimes he graded me.”
Nathan took the notebook.
Several observations matched the files on the memory card almost word for word.
That was dangerous for Leo.
If investigators found only the boot and the notebook, the teenager could look responsible for compiling the surveillance archive.
Leo finally understood.
His face went white.
“They were gonna say I did it.”
Dante did not answer.
Not yet.
One clue argued against that conclusion.
Why would Marcus panic and stop the boot from being opened if framing Leo was the plan?
The device needed to be discovered eventually.
Unless it had been discovered too early.
Dante reconstructed the morning.
Lily arrived for boot fitting.
Leo carried the boots.
Grant disappeared for seven minutes.
Lily put on the right boot.
The tracker shifted immediately.
She complained something was moving.
Staff brought her to Dr. Emma.
The discovery was supposed to happen later.
After what?
Nathan checked the club schedule.
At 2:00 p.m., Dante was scheduled to leave for Manhattan.
At 2:15, Leo had boxing training.
At 2:30, Lily had a trail lesson.
At 3:00, Marcus planned a closed security demonstration for foundation directors.
Dante looked at the schedule.
Everything centered on that demonstration.
Marcus had been preparing to show the board something.
May you like
Something serious enough to force approval of Meridian Shield’s contract.
And if the boot had remained intact for another two hours, the memory card would have appeared exactly when Marcus needed it.
