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“Pause,” Jake shouts, pointing at the tall figure on the screen.
Although the camera quality isn’t the best, and the image is pixelated, it’s clear that the person leaving the staffroom is a tall man, his wide shoulders and muscular arms giving him away. His face is covered by a baseball cap, and his head is tilted down, making it hard to see any of his features.
It doesn’t take me long to work out why Jake asked for the video to be paused. The man is carrying a large duffle bag, which appears to be overly full, as his knuckles are straining trying to carry it in one hand.
The man is wearing black trousers and a long-sleeved black hoodie, covering up any identifiable features. He’s essentially a ghost… He could also be the last person to have seen Indie.
“What’s in the bag?” Jacob asks, his voice trembling.
“I don’t know,” I tell him, before turning back to the screen. “Peri, pull up another screen to follow his movements, whilst we monitor the staffroom door, just to make sure Indie doesn’t come out.”
She does as I instruct, pulling up footage on two of the main screens. The closed staffroom door continues playing at a normal speed on one screen, whilst another focuses on the man’s movements.
The man leaves the staffroom and heads straight down the corridor, towards the staff exit at the back. It leads into a back alleyway, but you can get to the staff car park too.
As soon as he leaves the building, Peri switches to the external footage, letting out a curse as she continues clicking her keyboard. “Bollocks, there are a few blindspots out the back. It’s never been a problem before, but this guy seems to end up in all of them.”
I look over at Jake, who is thinking the same thing I am. “I don’t think that’s a coincidence. He knows exactly where our blind spots are, and he’s aiming for them,” he growls, looking furious.
I reach out and take his hand in mine, not bothered that people might see. We both need each other right now, and that’s more important than anything else.
I cling to him like he’s my lifeline, and he does the same, both of us terrified as the reality dawns on us this man has probably taken Indie.
Peri looks over at the other screen, noting that another server called Susie went into the changing room and came out less than ten minutes later, but there was still no sign of Indie.
“On the changing room, fast forward to the present time. We need to be sure she hasn’t left,” I tell Peri, holding on to the last bit of hope that she might still turn up.
When we reach the footage of me going into the room, my body is flooded with ice once more, nausea bubbling in my stomach as fear overwhelms me. Jake squeezes my hand, and though he’s trembling beneath my touch, I pull strength just from having him close.
“What happens when the man leaves Caged?” Jake asks, neither of us able to see him on the mass of monitors that Peri is controlling.
She lets out a huff that turns into a long sigh. “I don’t know for sure. You see that white van in the corner of screen three?”
She points to one of the monitors in the corner, where I can just about see the corner of a white Transit van. You can onlymake out one of the doors on the back, giving away the make of the van, but very little else.
“Yes,” Jake and I say together.
“The van drives off a couple of minutes after I lose the man. It’s most likely that he positioned the van so the driver’s door and the side door would be in a blindspot, and he could climb in and drive off without being seen,” Peri explains.
“Can we track the van’s arrival to find a registration plate?” I ask, crossing my fingers we can find something to work with, as currently we have sweet fuck all.
“I’m just checking the nearby cameras now,” Peri says, pointing to a few different screens containing whizzing footage.
I can’t even begin to keep up with what’s on the screen, but this is why I pay Peri. I make a mental note, when I’m done dealing with this crisis, I’m going to force Marcus to install more cameras so there’s no fucking blindspots.
After a few minutes, Peri turns to face us. Although she’s trying to remain professional, it’s impossible to miss the myriad of emotions written across her face; fear, concern, anger, worry, sadness, and hesitation.
I’m sure she’s worried about her job, and the major incident she missed right under her nose. She probably knows Indie, as she’s the sort of person who speaks to all of her work colleagues, and she’s probably concerned for her safety. But mostly she seems scared of the two men in front of her.
Peri lifts her head and pulls her shoulders back, making herself look more confident as she takes on the professional persona she was trained to have.
“I’ve fully assessed the footage. The van arrived almost an hour before Indie did. The man came into Caged and sat at the end of the bar for a bit. He orders a shot that he pays for with cash, and downs the drink straight away. He then seemsto linger for a bit, keeping his head down and away from other people.
“Fifteen minutes before Mr Santoro arrives with Indie, the man makes his way through the crowd, down the staff only corridor. He seems to know the code to get into the back room, and from there, he makes his way straight into the staff changing room.
“A short time later, Indie enters the changing room. They’re both in there together for around ten minutes before he leaves, and I’ve checked all the footage to confirm Indie isn’t captured leaving.
“The man is carrying a large duffle bag, which he didn’t have with him when he entered. He makes his way outside, into the back alleyway, turning into the staff car park.