Page 47 of Wild Sentinel

I shared a look with Jack.

"You think there's any chance of getting it back? I'd really like to have it."

"At this point, the odds are pretty slim. And if it's in the possession of the West Beverly Police Department, you might have a hard time getting that pistol back. Given your status, I’d leave it be. Sorry.”

Jeff frowned. "I mean, it's not like I'm going to commit a crime. I'm a good upstanding member of the community these days. One stupid mistake as a kid.”

"What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a cinematographer. But work is starting to slow down lately. Hope it picks up."

"I’d like to see footage from your video doorbell, if you have any," I said.

"Sure. Let me get that for you. He pulled out his phone, launched the app, and searched for the clip. "I had saved it after the incident and gave a copy to the police." He pulled it up on his phone and showed it to me and Jack.

Despite being high definition, it was dark and somewhat grainy. The camera caught an angle of someone wearing dark clothes and a hat. A surgical mask covered their face. Sunglasses covered their eyes.

The footage was time-stamped 9:33 PM, within the window of Vivian’s death.

I noticed something interesting about the footage right away.

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The perp walked with a slight limp.

He climbed over the fence, using one of the pilasters so as not to skewer himself on the spires of the wrought iron.

That was the end of the clip.

Jeff showed us another clip of the perp leaving through the front gate. He had a backpack stuffed with stolen items. He was inside the house less than ten minutes and headed south, toward Vivian’s, when he left.

"How did he get into the house?” I asked.

"Through a window. We leave them open most of the time. I guess my wife forgot to lock it before we left. We usually don't worry about it. This neighborhood is pretty safe. But things have been going downhill lately.”

"Where were you during the break-in?”

"Out to dinner. Then we stopped at a bar for a drink. My wife and I like to have date night on Fridays. Keeps it fresh.”

Jeff texted me the clips.

"And you gave copies of this footage to the PD?”

He nodded.

I thanked him for the information and gave him a card. I told him we’d be in touch if we found anything.

I texted the video clips to Seth. [Do you think this could be Lucas? Did he have a limp?]

Seth didn’t respond right away.

We canvased the area, asking neighbors for doorbell footage.

Nobody remembered hearing gunshots around the time of Vivian’s murder. Nobody had seen the burglar or the shooter. A few people were willing to share footage from their doorbell cameras, but none captured any footage of the perp.

JD and I walked back down the street to Vivian’s house. I stood on the driveway by the gate, trying to recreate the scene in my mind. When Vivian pulled into her driveway, she had to wait a few seconds for the gate to fully open before she could drive in. Plenty of time for a perpetrator to approach the vehicle and put a few rounds into her. Surely the West Beverly forensic team had collected any shell casings on site by now, but Jack and I gave a look around just in case.

We didn’t find any.