Chapter 17: 17

“Why does he work here if you don't trust him?” I asked. Kaylee chuckled at my words. There is a reason why she keeps him around, and she was about to show me. She typed some information down, and the upper-floor camera showed.

“When he first started here, he was just a normal guy who loved technology. Somehow, my workers got skeptical as he would appear in the weirdest spots. He would be coming out of empty rooms or the darkest hallways. One day, a coworker spotted him coming out of an off-limits room. Suspicious, huh? Brad is on my suspect list after the rumors I heard about him. He will be monitored closely.”

“Do the other workers know about this?? Are they aware of Brad's weirdness??” I said.

She smiled with pride. When the company goes on lockdown, everyone is on watch. Nobody is out of the woods and is now a suspect. The workers are not slow and are trained for this situation. They know what to do and how everything works. There have been too many incidents happening for Kaylee not to do this.

After the disappearance of Jennie, she had a gut feeling about him.

I pouted out of amazement. Kaylee wasn’t just a young girl who was looking for power. She is observant and smart as well. She knows what is right for the company and acts on it. Plus, I know she isn’t the only one to feel something about Brad. It could be others. "Do you have the tape of what happened that night?" I asked. Kaylee nodded and went to find it in a file case.

Keeping the files and stuff down here is pretty good. No one can come down without authorization. Good. Rummaging through some boxes, she found what she was looking for. She found the tape. I told Kaylee if she ever looked at it.

“Nope. I haven’t gotten the chance too. I was told to give all evidence to the police, but I couldn’t let them have these. I’m glad I didn’t give it to them; they probably burned it.”

She continued to search through the files to find others. I sat down in a chair nearby and thought that Kaylee could help in some way. She knows this area better than anyone. Maybe she knows about the bar. A “ah” came out of her mouth, which snapped me out of my thoughts.

She took the tape and popped it into the system. “These are the tapes of that day. Every hour and minute of it. To the first person who comes in and the last person to leave. If we want to know, this is it.” Kaylee explained.

She rewinds the tape to the beginning. Nobody was in the building until 4 am when the secretary walked onto the floor doing her checkups. Her job is to straighten files and ensure tasks are on Kaylee’s desk. An hour later, Kaylee walks in, greeting the secretary as usual. After a couple of more minutes, workers began to flood the floor individually. Out of nowhere, I yelled stop as something caught my eye.

Jennie entered the scene with someone without an ID on him. He was wearing a hat so that I couldn’t see his face. “Company rules stated we must have IDs visible at all times. Plus, I don’t recognize the person.” I said.

“Your right. It’s hard to tell when we can’t see the face. It looks like he is trying to avoid the camera or didn’t want to make eye contact with Jennie.”

We watched as the secretary didn’t even see him walk past. He was so close to Jennie that he blended in with the rest of the people on the floor. This is the person that Evan saw that day?? Throughout the whole day, he disappeared and reappeared by Jennie's side. He was everywhere except in the office with her. To me, it was odd by the way he was just there.

“This person doesn’t belong on the floor. You can tell by how he doesn’t show up on the cameras at certain times. He is not even in the offices. This person probably is a visitor or works on a different floor.” I stated.

“True. He could be hiding from the camera. Let’s check the backroom camera and see.” Kaylee switches the tape to the back room where the crime scene happened. “Look, someone was back there. The cameras are facing the wrong way. Look.” She pointed out.

You can see that camera was turning away from its original spot. The only light we saw was from the walls. I pointed out a shadow creeping past. You can barely see it because of the angle, but someone was there.

Kaylee mentioned maintenance staff comes once and a while to check the systems. She goes back there as well at times. Why would she return there if there were only machines and the security room? "Why would you go back there?" I said curiously.

“I have rooms in these buildings that are only accessible to me. This basement isn’t the only place where I keep my things. The top floor has a room that connects to the first floor… and… oh shit.”

“So, you are telling me that there are secret rooms in this building. One of those connects to the fucking first floor!! What you keep in that room!!” I shouted.

“Old building plans and information about this build...ing.”

I never reacted so fast in my life. Kaylee caught on and followed me to the elevator. We headed back up to the top floor. Once we stepped foot on the ground, we sprinted to the back area. The others just felt the wind past them as we went by. I asked where the door she talked about was. She pointed to the left of the hallway. At this dead end, Kaylee explained it was a small line indicating where the door is at.

But you needed a key to get in. I examined the spot to see if something was strange about it. Kaylee quickly snatched the keys from her pockets and went inside to find it a mess. Bingo! We found the actual crime scene. Papers were everywhere, laptops were destroyed, and blood was splattered on the walls. In my eyes, witnessing another murder scene was terrifying. This time there was nobody found.

“No fucking wonder they couldn’t find evidence out there because the struggle happened here,” I said.

“We need to call the police. They need to see.”

~ 25 mins later ~

“They tried to kick it open before finding the key. As you can see, the door is out of place. The person did not want any suspicion. Look, the camera is painted black.”

Kaylee leaned in and whispered in my ear, saying that’s why they didn’t see what happened. She thought the cameras were broken in here.

“The struggle did occur here. She was possibly stabbed, maybe. But no blood leads to the stairway. Beaten?? You guys mentioned there was a guy with her, right? Could he possibly be the one who set this up?? He probably created the perfect escape until she started to fight back.” He stated.

Kaylee and I stared at each other with blank expressions. Who has the time to plan this?? The other workers peek their heads in to see. Brad was even here to watch. I asked Kaylee if Brad was up here during any of those times. Especially at night when the kidnapping started. She couldn’t put her tongue on it as everyone was busy that day. Plus, no one pays attention to the floor that often, even when people come to fix that back room.

Brad wasn’t on the floor at none of those times. He would have been seen on camera. Kaylee always sees him first before he goes roaming around the floor. That person was up here too many times for it to be Brad. “The room back then was a recording studio for voice acting. So the walls are soundproof. Since we stopped that production, it became a junk room. I never changed the interior of it. Jennie was probably screaming for help, and no one could hear her. Evan stated he saw something moving in the shadows that night. It was them.” Kaylee said.

Kevin thought for a moment. I could tell that something dramatic was about to happen. Kevin wanted the whole company to be shut down, which would be complicated. Since it happened on this floor, he wanted the floor to be shut down for a couple of days. Officers will roam the whole building while this goes on.

“I can have my workers on a different floor. There are empty meeting rooms they can use. I can give you any information as time goes by.” Kaylee said.

Kevin agreed to the plan and told the workers to head home for today. Nobody hesitated. I stayed behind and waited on Kevin to finish. “This is the lead you needed to find the person?” I said in an upset tone.

“This is huge. The first time we got evidence to go off of. Those other officers were shit. Taking items and tossing them like it is nothing. We can retrace the steps with this. Poor Jennie, she must have been scared for her life. To think she trusted the person.”

Who knows? She probably didn't even know the guy and came for a visit. Jennie was a friendly person that would talk to anybody. They probably took advantage of her kindness and slipped something into her coffee. You should have seen Kevin’s face when he heard that. He searches around the room. Kevin gestured to his partner to put it in the bag.

I should have been a detective. I gave him another lead. Out of nowhere, my phone buzzed.

Unknown:

You are pretty smart, Ellie. But are you smart enough to find me?

Ellie:

You are dumb for texting me. They can track you down with my phone

Unknown:

We will see about that.

An electric shock sent through my hand and up my arm, which made me drop my phone. It felt face down and landed with a crack. “Motherfucker.”