The Vanishing of Brandyn Taylor

It's Him.

Tim and I waited until half past two, before heading back down to reception. We figured we'd give Liam time to sort himself out before we went down, plus we were both enjoying being cuddled up together. We'd put the TV on for a bit, but hadn't really taken much notice of what was on.

"Hey guys. How did you sleep?" Liam asked as we approached the desk.

"Good yeah. Beds here are really comfy." Tim said.

"I've actually never slept on one, but guests often say they're good. Helen said she'd met you this morning. How was Barry's?"

"Amazing." I replied. "Best brekkie I've had in years. I might get Tim to bring me over now and then just for breakfast."

"Wow that good eh? Go on through to the office, I've got the file opened up waiting for you. I've got a few things to do before I join you."

"Thanks Liam." I said as we walked into the office again.

I don't think that Tim could have sat any closer to me this time, he lazily rested one arm over my knee as he bent forward watching the footage. At least we knew there had to be another shot of this guy, Liam had said he'd stayed a few nights. I was really hoping it was a better shot this time, but Tim could be right and he could be avoiding the cameras on purpose.

"I've had a slight idea." Tim said. "If it is Brandyn then we may be able to find out if he used his real name, and if he did how he paid. That will give us a few clues; if he used his own name he can't be hiding from anyone dodgy, and if he paid by cash he could be hiding."

"Not that it will help us find him. Will it?"

"I'm not sure, but if he did use a card one of my computer nerds may be able to trace if there's any other transactions on it. It will also give them a better time frame. Instead of searching for anything in the past three or four weeks, they can search specific dates onwards."

"True. If they did find something I assume we can't go to the police with that information?"

"Well it's not exactly legal to trace someone's debit or credit card information. Might be best if we kept it quiet and let the police find it in their own time."

"At least we would know he is ok. Or at least that he was ok last week." I replied.

We chatted about what we would tell Rachel about it all, when we got home, as we continued watching. By now we were on the next days footage. I was wondering if Liam had got mixed up about how many nights this guy had stayed, as we hadn't spotted him going back into the hotel again yet. It's possible he slipped by when reception was busy.
The time stamp on the footage showed 12:15 pm when we spotted the guy again.

"There, look, it's him again." I excitedly said pointing to the screen.

We both peered at the monitor, hoping for a better shot of the guys face. As he was about half way across reception he turned and looked towards the desk: straight at the camera. That was it, that was exactly the shot we needed.

"Oh my god Kiera, it's him. It IS Brandyn. You were right."

Liam must have heard us, he came into the office quickly.

"Is it your friend, have you spotted him?" He asked.

"It is, it's definitely him. This is just amazing. After all the dead ends finally we spotted him." I said.

"Oh brilliant. That's fantastic. I'm so pleased for you. What's the date on the clip? I'll go look up his name for you."
We told Liam the date it said on the screen, and he went back out into reception, returning a few minutes later.
"Would he have used a different name? Actually that's stupid, what I mean is he must have used a different name. He didn't check in under Brandyn Taylor. "