Page 83 of Outsider

Sighing, she gives him a withering look. “Once. But I’d dealt with Eddie before.” Another sigh, this time imbued with the sound of regret. “I needed to make an impression on him, so I stepped up the force continuum.”

Tomasetti groans. “Of course you did,” he mutters.

“I needed his cooperation, and I wanted him to know I was in charge. Cysco might’ve been small-time, but he was smart. I knew making a good arrest was my ticket, so I came down hard. There was no wrongdoing on my part.”

“Is the audio correct as you remember it?” I ask.

“Not even close,” she tells me. “That’s not my voice.”

“Sounds like you.” Scowling, Tomasetti pulls out his cell again, scrolls through the menu to the footage. “I want you to take us through every step.”

“I can take you through the footage in which I was there,” she says.

To entertain the notion of a coordinated effort within the police department of a major metropolitan city to modify bodycam footage in order to frame an officer for murder chills me to the bone.

Holding the cell so that both Gina and I can see the screen, Tomasetti hits the play button. No one speaks as the video unrolls. This time I pay attention to the details. The date and time match the report of Cysco’s death. The numbers indicate the division and the officer involved. I look for skips or jumps, anything that doesn’t appear intrinsic to the original video.

“That part of the video is from another arrest,” Gina murmurs. “Date and time have been altered.” She points. “I made contact there. He’s cooperating. Nothing in his hands.”

“Do you have the report that corresponds with the original footage?” I ask.

“All the corresponding reports are on file. Or should be. Under normal circumstances I’d have access. Now…” She shrugs.

The video ends. It’s 2:18 minutes in length. Tomasetti hits the play button, backs it up, plays it again.

“Quality is bad,” he grumbles. “Dark.”

“Especially early on,” I say. “Audio is scratchy.”

Gina makes a sound of irritation. “A year ago, when that original footage was recorded, the technology wasn’t as good as it is now. It’s grainy and dark. Whoever altered it tried to match it, but it’s not the same.”

At 1:17 Gina raises her hand and points. “There,” she says. “That’s when the original footage ends. Even the voice is different. It’s not mine.”

Tomasetti stops the video, rolls it back, and hits play again.

I watch, but I don’t see anything unusual or suspicious. No skips or bumps. No unnatural movement. The audio is too scratchy for me to tell if the voice is hers or someone else’s.

“I can’t tell,” I say.

“In the original video, my arm is visible from the elbow to hand.” She points. “At 1:17, the footage becomes clearer. The voice changes.”

“Audio shifts slightly,” Tomasetti says. “It’s subtle.”

But like most bodycam footage, both the audio and visual are poor quality, with a lot of movement, rustling, and background noise that got picked up by the mike.

When the video finishes, Gina straightens, her gaze flicking from me to Tomasetti. “Someone took footage from one of my arrests of Cysco and somehow spliced it with my arrest of Lee Kilpatrick. The rest is … added footage that has nothing to do with me.”

“Have you ever been involved in a shooting while on duty?” Tomasetti asks.

Gina shakes her head. “I’ve had to draw my weapon two or three times in all the years I’ve been a cop, but I’ve never fired a shot. Not once.”

“You upload your bodycam footage after every shift?” I ask.

“Of course I do. It’s policy. It’s routine. Easy to do. Never had a reason not to comply.” As she speaks, despondence and hopelessness leach into her expression. “That footage is damning. I don’t see how I can overcome it.” She says the words in a monotone, as if suddenly realizing it’s the last nail in a coffin that is now sealed. “Bodycam footage is indisputable.”

I look at Tomasetti. “Can bodycam footage be authenticated?” I ask. “Forensically?”

“There’s an authentication process,” he tells me. “BCI is contracted with an image-forensics expert out of Bowling Green. We’ve used them a dozen times in the last four or five years. They’re good.” He frowns. “We’ve never encountered dashcam or bodycam footage that’s been altered.”