Page 56 of Stay Awake
On the screen, she could see Detective Jack Lavelle walking out of a narrow lane behind the apartment building where the murder had taken place. He walked about eight yards down the lane to an intersecting street and stood in full view of the liquor store’s security cameras, where he reached into his jacket pocket and answered his phone. It was Halliday on the line.
“It’s a perfect angle,” she said. “If the killer came out that way, then it’s almost certain we’ll get a visual. I have the USB stick with the CCTV footage from overnight. Let’s watch it in the car.”
Sitting in the Ford a few minutes later, Halliday plugged the memory stick into her iPad. They were silent as they watched the recorded footage.
Given that the CCTV cameras at the building’s rear doors weren’tworking, the liquor store’s footage might be their only chance of seeing the killer.
The time code–stamped footage was drained of color due to the low quality of the camera lenses and the poor light. They didn’t need bells and whistles. All they needed was for the suspect to come out of the lane and look up so they could get a clear view of a face.
Halliday fast-forwarded the footage until she reached the section with a time stamp after two in the morning.
At seven minutes past two, they saw a movement in the lane.
“Here it is,” Halliday said.
In the CCTV footage, someone was walking down the lane toward the liquor store. They both leaned forward in anticipation.
It was only when the suspect approached the curb that the detectives were able to see the suspect’s face thanks to a nearby streetlight. Halliday froze the video.
“It’s a woman,” said Lavelle.
They stared at the hazy image. The woman’s long hair was tied in a plait that was starting to unravel.
“Not just any woman. That’s Liv Reese,” Halliday said.
“I’m not so sure,” said Lavelle dubiously. “The image is too murky. We can’t see her face properly.”
“Trust me. It’s her,” said Halliday, comparing the Interpol photo of Liv Reese to the woman in the CCTV footage. “I’ll ask the social worker in London if she can give us an ID based on the footage. Otherwise we’ll need to use facial recognition software.”
Halliday messaged a screenshot of the woman’s face to the social worker.Marcia, do you recognize her?she texted.
Halliday’s phone rang seconds later. “You’ve found Liv!” Marcia called out. “I’m delighted. How is she?”
“We haven’t found her,” said Halliday. “She appears on some CCTV footage so we know she’s here in New York City. We just don’t know where. But we will find her.”
Halliday tried to keep her tone light. She wasn’t ready to tell the social worker that Liv Reese appeared to have fled the scene of a murder early that morning. That put her at the top of their list of suspects.
Not only did they have Liv Reese’s prints at the scene, they now had visuals putting her in the apartment building at the time of the murder. That was more than enough to bring her in for questioning.
“Marcia, I know it’s late there but I have a couple more questions,” said Halliday, thinking ahead. They would need more to build a case against Liv Reese.
“Of course, anything I can do to help.”
“You mentioned that you’ve encouraged Liv to write notes and messages as reminders. Has Liv ever written the wordsWAKE UPon her hands, or anywhere else?”
The social worker sighed. “I tried to get Liv to write practical messages on her hands, such as her address and emergency contact numbers. But when I last saw her several weeks ago, she’d written messages that came across as delusional. So in answer to your question, yes, I’ve seen handwriting on Liv’s hands saying things likeDON’T SLEEP,STAY AWAKE, andWAKE UP.”
“Do you know why she chooses to write those particular messages?” Halliday asked.
“Liv tries her very best not to fall asleep. Perhaps deep down she knows that she’ll forget everything once she sleeps. Dr. Stanhope, her psychiatrist, says her self-induced insomnia actually exacerbates her condition. She falls asleep all the time out of sheer exhaustion.”
“It sounds like a terrible way to live,” said Halliday.
“Lack of sleep does horrible things to a person’s mind,” said the social worker. “It can make some people psychotic.”
Chapter
Thirty-Four
