All eyes shifted to Chase, who stared back at them with a casual shrug.
“No one’s getting away with shit, Boyer.” Archer pulled his hands from his pockets and faced the youngest member of the team. “We’ll go door-to-door ourselves if that’s what it takes.”
“Nash is right.” Logan nodded. “This stunt may very well turn out to be nothing more than some teenage assholes trying to scare Cassie. But until we know for sure, we’re treating this as a threat.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Lucky gave their leader a sloppy salute. “Though they won’t get much from your doorbell feed.” He turned a regretful expression Cassie’s way. “While y’all were chatting it up with the cops, I used my trusty tablet to access the recording from today.”
“And?”
“And…whoever threw the paint was fast and smart.” He turned the tablet in his hands around for them to see.
They watched in silence as an unknown assailant dressed in head-to-toe black approached Cassie’s porch with two pails of red paint and a brush. After writing the nasty message onto her siding, the bastard swung the large can back before tossing its contents onto the front door—as well as the small camera mounted near its frame.
With their view obstructed by the thick, red paint, it was impossible to see the perpetrator tossing the remaining paint onto Cassie’s porch, as well as the bastard’s swift exit.
Come near her or her house again, asshole. It’ll be the very last thing you do.
“As you can tell from the beginning of the footage, they came from between your house and your neighbor’s over here to the north. They kept their head and face completely covered, and even did a damn good job concealing their eyes from the camera.”
Lucky was right. With the man’s sophisticated identification program—not unlike ones the police, FBI, and other law-enforcement organizations use—he’d be able to determine an estimated height and weight of their suspect. But that would be it.
“Looks like your neighbors over there have a similar system to your old one.” The techie pointed to the house directly across the street from Cassie’s. “Now that the cops have cleared out, I’ll see if I can gain access to their footage. I’ll also try to tap into any others on this street. If we’re lucky, we might be able to catch a glimpse of the asshole before he put on the mask. Or at least a glimpse of the getaway car.”
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t just hear you say that.”
Archer and the others looked down at Cassie, who was shaking her head at Lucky.
“Shit. Sorry,” Lucky quickly apologized. “I keep forgetting you’re a lawyer.” Then, with a tilt of his head, the asshole flashed his signature smirk her way and said, “Probably because you’re so nice.”
Cassie gave a head tilt of her own. “You don’t think lawyers can be nice?”
“You? Yes.” Lucky let that smirk turn full-grin. “The rest of them? Not so much.”
“The cops may be gone”—Archer interrupted with a deep scowl in Lucky’s direction—“but those reporters are still watching. So maybe we save this conversation for until after we get inside?”
His teammate’s brows shot up as his blue eyes widened with surprise. “Geez, man. Who pissed in your cornflakes this morning?”
“I don’t know, Jason. Maybe the person who decided to go all Andy Warhol on Cassie’s front porch.”
“Actually, Warhol was more a visual artist.” A deep rumble. “Something like this would be considered more abstract.”
As if they’d rehearsed it, Archer, Cassie, Logan, Lucky, and Chase all simultaneously turned their focus onto Van.
“What?” the tall fucker growled.
“Since when do you know so much about art?” Chase asked what the rest of them were thinking.
Van’s emotionless expression never changed. “My mom taught high school art.”
“Oh.” Lucky’s tune changed quickly. “Guess you probably picked up a few things along the way, then huh?”
“Guess so.”
“Uh…guys?” Cassie chimed back in. “If you want to finish this up inside, we should probably go through the garage to avoid stepping in the paint.”
Archer’s lips twitched with the urge to smile. He knew what the clever woman was doing, and damn if he didn’t find himself impressed.
She’d been through hell and back with watching a man die to her arrest and subsequent release. Now she’d come home from her late husband’s funeral—after having dealt with the cheating asshole’s prick of a father—only to find her home had been vandalized.