“Sheriff?”
JD’s voice jerked Coop back to the present. “Yeah. What’s up?”
“Something kept calling me back to the video from Sunday night.” The deputy opened a folder in his hands. “I went back over it practically one frame at a time.” He passed Coop a DVD. “Run this to time stamp 10:33:22.”
Coop did as he requested. “What am I looking for?”
“Maybe nothing. Just thought it was interesting.”
After reaching the designated spot, he hit pause. “Okay. 10:33:22.” He peered at the screen. “What did you see?”
“Upper right hand corner. Who do you see?”
Coop rubbed his eyes and looked at the fuzzy image again. “Is that—Anson McElroy?”
“Who’s he talking to?”
“Sonofabitch!”
“You can’t get a good look at her face, just her blouse and the hair, but I believe that’s our vic.”
Coop’s heartrate accelerated as he inched the DVD forward. A slightly distorted profile view showed Anson definitely talking to a woman who could be Joyce Ayers before they move out of camera range. “Hard to tell if he’s the guy we saw her with later at the bar. Shirt is dark, so could be. I’m just not sure.”
“Yeah. And look here,” said the deputy as he pointed to another partial image near the corner of the screen. “Mr. Puckett from the bank. Is he following them?”
“…I don’t know.” Coop glanced up. “I saw him in the parking lot on the other surveillance video getting it on with one of the waitresses.”
“Yeah. I saw that, too.” JD shook his head. “I always thought of him as a pretty-boy type. Never pictured him as a player.”
“Me neither. I’ll go back and look at it again. I think it was later, but not sure.” Coop blew out a long breath. “Can’t believe I missed both of those.”
“I looked at this thing three times before I saw them. And if I hadn’t been looking at it really slow, wouldn’t have seen it then cause they are in and out of the frame so fast. Teddy needs to invest in better equipment. The quality sucks.”
Coop stood and reached for his hat. “I’m going to talk to Anson. You talk to Puckett.” He looked at the clock on the wall. “Sam is probably at the bank with Puckett right now. Give them half an hour, then call and have him come by the office. Show him pictures of both women. We’ll meet back here after lunch.”
“Roger that.”
Sam’s ring tone caught him at the door. “Delaney.”
“Hey.”
Sam’s voice instantly lifted his sober mood. “Hey. You through with Puckett already?”
“He moved our appointment to this afternoon. I’m headed over to Mr. McElroy’s instead. My attorney approved the paperwork, so I’m going to his office and sign my life away.”
Coop paused. “You’re headed there now?”
“Yeah. I just called and he’s expecting me. He has court in an hour and wanted me to come on now. Is something wrong?”
“What? Oh no. Lot on my mind this morning.” Like whether I need to be there with you or not. “Actually, I need a favor.”
“I just happen to be in a favor granting mood this morning.”
“Would you mind putting off seeing Anson till later? I need to bend his ear on some work stuff that really can’t wait.”
“Of course not. Eva wanted me to pick up some things at Arnolds anyway. I’ll call him back and set it up for later.”
“I’ll take care of it. I’m almost there and I’ll let him know. Any particular time you want to see him?”
“No, just whatever works for him.”
“I’ll let you know what he says.”
“Thanks. I’ll call you when I get back to the house.”
“Sounds good.”
He saw JD coming out and motioned him over. “Puckett won’t be in till later.”
“Yeah. His secretary told me.”
“Sam was headed to Anson’s to sign the papers on Doc’s place. I asked her to put it off till later so I could talk to him first.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
“I’ll talk to Anson.” He chewed his lip as his mind raced. “Call Puckett at home or on his cell and ask him to come by the office. He’s on the council so no one will think anything about it. If we go to him, folks might talk.”
“Copy that.”
