Liars don't Escape

Chapter 8.

Celine got in the car, closed the car door as it banged and Richard drove off. For a while, there was silence, awkward silence. 

'Today, why did you seem a bit scared? Something happened before I came?' Richard asked breaking the silence, trying to clarify his doubts.

'Nothing much.' Celine replied. She wasn't sure if she should tell.

'If not much, then maybe you can tell.' he replied with a soft voice.

'Well,' she sighed. 'you remember the day, you got my letter.'
He nodded.
'Actually I found that letter inside my room hidden, that day. When I LEFT, I remember my room was not in a good state, I mean it was a bit messed up, but today it was perfectly tidy and all set, I don't know-how. I didn't enter my house until today since then.'

'And you think, someone has done that on purpose.' He said interrupting what she ought to say.

'Not only that, if my room can be touched so can many more things can be. I fear much more evidence might be hidden in my house which might not be in my favour.' She deepened her breath.  'I'm going to be doomed, sooner or later.'

'Not so soon.' he smiled. 'We're almost there.'

Richard parked the car near the coffee shop and got off the car, and so did Celine.

They got inside the coffee shop.

'So, how often do you come here?' Richard asked. Heedup at the ceilings and walls, searching for cameras, observing the scenario happening.

'Umm...not since 2-3 days, but before this incident, almost regularly.' Celine replied.

'Hmm... there not are many CCTVs here. Any particular place, where you used to sit? Do you remember where you sat that day?' He asked.

'Yeah.' she walked to the right corner, 4th table and stopped.

'Here. That day, and almost every day I used to sit here.'

He looked around the shop. There were in total, five CCTV cameras. Two at the two right corners and two at the left corners whereas one was near a pillar which was at the middle.

'Look,' Richard said showing her the CCTVs. 'No matter at what side of the table you sat, on any of these two CCTVs your face should be visible.'

'Yeah, right. C'mon, let's check then.' Celine said quickly. She thought this time maybe something positive would happen. She had her hopes high.

Celine and Richard walked to the receptionist. Richard showed his identity card to a lawyer and asked the receptionist to take them to the security room so that they can have a look at the CCTV footage. The receptionist called a member of the staff to take them to the security.

As they went inside the security room, there was a big screen showing the video from the five cameras, in front of the screen a security guard was sitting and watching.

Richard asked him to show them the footage of this week Monday and of time between 3-4 pm. The security guard took the footage out and started it.

The footage started. They watched the video at a 1.5x rate, which was slightly faster. The time changed from 3 to 3:33 pm and there was not a trace of Celine in the footage. Celine's heart rate got faster. According to her, she should have been in the video by now. The table she sat on that day was empty the entire time.

'Let's go, we won't find anything here.' Celine said to Richard.

'Why? There's still some footage left.'

'Let's just go, I'll explain.'

They came out of the security room and sat on the nearest table they found empty.