Crash Test Dummy

Chapter 21

Once the door closed. Grady went to the window and looked out the blinds.

"Jasmine is over at the nurse's desk talking," he said. "Why didn't you tell us about the camera?"

"I actually forgot about it until she asked if I had anything besides my phone. I thought about not admitting to it, but then I thought that they might have found it. If it's in evidence, I didn't want botch things."

Grady grinned. "If it's not, they'll be sending out a team to scour the area looking for it." He turned more serious. "Are you sure it wasn't on? If it was, maybe it could corroborate your story."

"Do they record the camera feed?"

"Not usually," Momz said. "Your camera feed goes into a file for a week. Unless you review it and ask for a copy of something from that week, it all goes away. If an alarm goes off, a separate record feature kicks in until you call them and tell them to stop recording. They keep those files for up to a year, just in case there is a break in and the files are needed. If you want to keep the recorded file, they make a copy and email it to you. If not, they trash it when the year's up."

"Too bad," Grady said. "Your week would have rolled over yesterday."

"Not in this case," Momz responded. "The mini-cam is part of an experimental program they're testing. They're recording the feed and combing through it to check for clarity and such. They have dozens of cameras whose footage they have to wade through. There might still be a record, if the camera came on."

"Can you contact Livecam and find out?"

"Sure."

She got a service representative. They had to pass her up the line a couple of times before she found someone who had the clearance to talk to her. Finally she hung up.

"They do record those cameras. They are going to find the video feed and see if it was active. I have an appointment tomorrow morning at 9am. I'll know then."

I took a deep breath. "Can you see if they still have the recording of Uncle Clarence cleaning out Popz stash?"

"I suppose. Why?"

"Uncle Clarence came by. I accused him of setting up my homies. I mean, he cleaned out everything, so I couldn't figure out how the pills got in the saddlebag unless he planted them. But he said there were no pills in the cabinet when he cleaned it out." I looked from Momz to Grady. "If Unk didn't take the pills, then it means that Jake and Marlow already planned to swipe them and probably the bike. I mean, they would have had to put them in the saddlebag before the cameras were installed."

"And the wires under the seat were already disconnected," Grady added. "You put that on the list you made. That means someone was expecting to hotwire the bike. When did you tell them your plan?"

"We met at McDonalds on the 31st at noon," I said. "The last time they were in F2 was before we went to Mexico. In fact, it was the day before the Livecam guys showed up to install the system. That's the day Uncle Clarence took me to Angel Tree. They left just before he pulled in, but Jake admitted they came back afterwards and raided the pantry." I looked sheepish. "He noticed I didn't go back in the house to turn on the alarm. Sorry, Momz. They could have gone into F2 and prepared everything that same afternoon."

"Did they have any idea that cameras were going to be installed?" Momz asked.

"Yeah. I told them that Seth was talking about putting in a system but that it probably wouldn't happen before Christmas."

"Then they could have prepared everything, expecting to be able to take off with the Blue Ox while you were gone on vacation."

"I suppose." I shook my head. "I still can't believe they would steal from me and stuff. They were supposed to be my friends."