Page 41 of August
“It can’t be,” she said earnestly. “But it’s the cap. It looks familiar.”
“I can’t make it out at all,” he said, staring at the screen. It looked like a dark cap with some kind of insignia on it.
“I can’t really either, but something is familiar.”
“Let’s go check out the footage on the monitors. The resolution on those screens is better and maybe we can get a better angle.”
“It can’t be him,” she said, looking up at him as he stood.
“I know, sweetheart, but maybe one of your grandfather’s cronies is wearing his hat to try to make you come out of hiding.”
“Oh,” she said, frowning. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“It’s just a guess. Unless your brother had a hat that no one else had ever bought, then either some random person is wearing it or someone is wearing it on purpose to draw you out.”
“I don’t like any of those options,” she said, shivering.
“Come on, sweets, we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
He grabbed their plates and put them on the counter to be cleaned, and then he picked up the tablet and took her hand. She was quiet as they walked out of the marketplace and made their way topside. It was still early, so no humans were in the park yet.
He had the code to the security office, and it was dark when they got into the building. He shut and locked the door, then turned on the lights and booted up the computers in the office.
Ginny saw something on the footage last night so we’re in the office to check it out on the monitors, he wrote in a text to Jupiter, Justus, Caesar, and Atticus.
What did she see? Jupiter texted back.
It was too grainy to really see, but she thought a male wearing a baseball cap reminded her of her brother. The cap, specifically, looked familiar to her.
There was a pause, then Justus wrote, I’ll come up to the office and look for other footage from the different cameras. Another angle might clear things up.
What could it be if her brother is dead? Caesar asked.
A coincidence with a human wearing the same cap, August texted, or someone from her pack trying to lure her out with it.
I want to say coincidence is more likely, but it’s best to be cautious considering how dangerous her people are, Jupiter said. Keep me posted.
August tucked his phone into his pocket and told Ginny about the text conversation.
“They probably think I’m nuts.” She used her foot to make her chair move back and forth.
“No one thinks you’re nuts,” he said, dropping into the chair next to her. “It’s why they wanted you to watch the gates, because it seems likely they’d try to get in that way again, among the humans.”
She turned to him and put her head on his chest with a groan. “I hate this.”
“I know,” he said, kissing her head. “I hate that you’re going through it.”
The computers beeped as they finished booting up. The front door unlocked and August leaned over to look out of the room, watching as Justus walked in and shut the door.
“Anything yet?” Justus asked.
“They’ve just now booted up,” August said.
“I’ll get the other monitors going and pull up the camera feeds. If you can’t see enough from the gate views, we can follow him through the park and maybe get a better view of his face.”
“Thanks, Justus,” August said.
August sat back and watched as Ginny looked through the footage, finding the male in the hat after a little diligent searching. She blew up the video, but it blurred the images too much, so she shrank it back down to normal and stared at the screen.