The Mafia's Police Girl

Chaos Underground (1)

I turned to Bell. "About what time would you say you came here?"

She looked up in thought. "Around two o'clock in the afternoon, sir."

"To make this easier, do you mind fast forwarding the video to around one o'clock or so? Maybe we can catch a glimpse of her through the entrance from there."

Officer Treviño sped up the recorded footage to as close to the time as he could. It was only fifteen minutes of us watching, that Light jerked from his seat and asked the officer to freeze the screen. He pointed to an image on the left side with a triumphant smirk.

"Here. I'm sure this is her. Is there a way for you to click this image and zoom in?"

The officer nodded and expanded the screen, an unmistakably clear image of Lizanna Marvel appeared following the blurred images of two females flanking beside her.

Who were those two females?

********
Officer Treviño's POV:

Shit, that was a close one.

If I hadn't spotted Andrès' men before that agent, then hastily blurred their faces when I enlarged the footage, I'm quite sure that they would've been under these American's radar. Phew.

From my peripheral, I glanced at agent Hawthorne to see if I could get a read of of him as he sat comfortably in his seat. Unfortunately, his poker face was as transparent as a damn rock. I drifted my attention toward the female, internally flinching when she caught my wandering eyes with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you gonna place these video clips in sequence now that we know which entrance they came from?"

"Ah yes," I chuckled. "Sorry about that."

With experienced fingers I typed across the keyboard at lightening speed, rushing to conceal the identities of the Vito subordinates while the screen remained frozen. I did my best to hide their faces, fully knowing that it could place me under their suspicion; but what else could I do? It's not like I was informed that they would visit this mall, let alone be in close contact with this missing American.

Once I was satisfied with my work, I unfroze the screen then allowed the video clips to play. As I sat back into my chair with a sigh, I could only hope that they would not catch on to what I had done....

Hawthorne's POV:

The old man is hiding something from us, I can feel it. I watched him as he sat back in his chair, his once tense shoulders relaxing considerably. If my suspicion of him is indeed accurate, then it means that every officer in this place couldn't be trusted.

But most importantly, why was he hiding something from us? Was it connected to our case?

I slid my eyes back to the video feed and noticed quite early that the two females who accompanied Lizanna from the entrance, were coincidentally still unidentifiable from the cameras installed inside. Their faces were blurred subtly, so much so that it was almost quite easy to miss for a lesser  inexperienced person. 

Sometime throughout the video, the group of women seperate with Lizanna heading down to what seemed to be the food court.

"Damnit, I can't believe I missed her," Bell muttered quietly when we saw her on the screen taking photos. It was at that same time that Lizanna rushed over to aid the same mysterious female we saw from the photo. I noticed that  the woman had been chocking, but after Lizanna's Heimlich maneuver the female settled down and gestured for Lizanna to join her at her table.

"Pause here," I voiced to the officer. "I'd like this image to be zoomed in and enlarged."

As the officer got to work, I nudged Bell and whispered to her to take a photo. She did so immediately and discreetly. Once the image began to focus I cursed, catching the attention of everyone in the room.