“How did this happen?” Shiloh said, looking and sounding so damn lost. “I have security. Cameras and a company. They’re supposed to call me…”
“I grabbed your phone,” Letitia said, rummaging in her bag. “Thought you might need it.”
She handed it to Shiloh, who stared, disbelieving, at the screen. “I muted it. I took a few selfies behind the register and of the crowd…and then I went to work.”
Over her shoulder, I saw a bunch of missed call notifications from the security monitoring company she’d hired.
“I wouldn’t blame yourself for that,” Tran said. “Typical smash-and-grab. They’re usually long gone before we show up. Can I take a look at your security footage?”
Shiloh nodded absently as she pulled up the security camera app, and we gathered around to watch.
The lights were out and the shop shadowy, but enough street light came in to see a skinny, hooded figure in a ski mask rampage through the store, a crowbar in one hand, a spray can in the other. I felt sick.
Frankie Dowd. Though it may as well have been me under that fucking ski mask.
I did this. I brought this to her, just like I knew I would.
Shiloh made a choking noise and shoved the phone at Tran, then stepped away to touch the jagged edge of a display case.
“Any clue?”
“That’s Frankie Dowd,” I said.
The officers glanced at each other. “As in Mitch Dowd’s son?”
“That’s what I said.”
Murray made notes on his notepad, and Tran frowned.
“What is it?”
“Mitch Dowd was released from prison a few days ago,” Tran said.
“The fuck? I thought he was serving a year.”
“He wassentencedto a year,” Tran said. “He appealed, and the judge commuted his sentence to six months of house arrest.”
“You think his kid did this?” Murray asked. He looked hesitant to follow up. “You can’t ID a face on that video.”
“I don’t need to see that fucker’s face to know it’s him.”
The officers conferred, and Tran said, “We’ll head over and ask him a few questions.”
“And then arrest his ass.”
“We need probable cause,” Murray said. “The video alone isn’t enough to make a positive ID.”
Tran held up his hand when I started to protest. “Take her home, okay?”
I sucked in a breath and nodded.
Tran took Shiloh’s information, and the cops left.
Rudy and Letitia were huddled together, watching Shiloh move through the wreckage of her shop.
“Get her home,” I said. “I’ll clean up here.”
Shiloh shook her head. “No, I can’t… I can’t leave…”