Why Not Murder

22. Alteration

22. Alteration

Maya had come to Hudson's office to report on the information she gained from the security company he had fired. Outside the glass wall, the cold wind was fierce some moments and then completely calm for spaces of time in between. Clouds were rapidly forming and disappearing. She explained to Hudson who she had met with.

"Essentially," Maya said, "the security company's role is to maintain its equipment at your residence and watch the videos in real time. If suspicious activity occurs, to report immediately to you or to the police if they cannot reach you. No suspicious activity was noticed the night your car was stolen."

"A car theft isn't suspicious?" Hudson remarked sarcastically.

"Someone was recorded getting into your sports car. It was very dark and the person's face could not be identified. No one suspicious was seen coming to the house and it was taken to mean that the person who got into the car came out from the house," Maya replied.

"That's a convoluted way of putting it," Hudson said, "Was the person actually seen coming out of the house?"

"From that direction, yes," Maya said, "however, the security company has no record of the person exiting the front door."

"What negligence!" Hudson exclaimed, "There's a camera watching the front door."

"The supervisor maintains there was no reason for you to be informed," Maya said.

"We'll see about that," Hudson said, "my lawyer is reviewing the contract as we speak."

"There were problems with squirrels and the company was going to check their cameras but apparently the account was closed before the scheduled appointment was going to take place," Maya said.

"I fired them immediately after I reported the theft to the police," Hudson said, "Why didn't the company act on the squirrel problem sooner?"

"They did not know there was a problem until the night of the theft. There are other issues as well. The video recordings do not show the weather as it actually was, resulting in the inevitable conclusion that the videos have been altered with time changes as well." Maya said.

"Why would that be done?" Hudson asked, "How could Wyler Roberts do that? Inside contacts? He may have learned from Heather who the security company was, although their logo is on all their cameras."

Maya said, "And who that man was we saw on the video who appeared to be creeping around the house remains to be determined. The security company claims there were no suspicious people that night on the property. Another thing: the cameras were turned off at the house's main switch during that night and again they considered that normal. They don't know who did it but they assumed it was you. Also there was a short power-out that night."

"A complicated password is needed to turn off the cameras," Hudson said, "but I know that during the time in question it wasn't me. I do occasionally turn it off but not regularly. So much for the security they profess to provide. You don't notice the loopholes during their sales pitch or from the brochure and instructions."

"With your permission," Maya said, "I would like to review more of the video records."

"No problem. I'll arrange that you can view it from my house." Hudson said. "Another question for you: are you now convinced that Wyler Roberts was the thief?"

"I'm going to find out if he was the unidentified man on the video that we saw lurking about on that night. I have to resolve this weather discrepancy and find out who could have altered the video. When I learn more I will let you know absolutely," Maya said. On her way out she smiled at Harriet who was frantically keyboarding computer documents with the telephone perched between her ear and shoulder. When Maya got outside she had to concentrate to brace herself against the nasty gusts of wind and noticed that the butterfly drone appeared to be looking at her while it was clutching a downspout on the office building wall. She smiled at it too.