Page 54 of Silent Scream

They followed her through the general office and into a space behind.

‘Here it is,’ she said, leaving them to it.

The space hardly qualified to be called a room. There was a small desk with an old television monitor and playback controls. A single VHS machine chuntered to the side.

‘I suppose digital was too much to hope for,’ Bryant groaned.

‘Yep, good old video tape. Please tell me they’re labelled.’

Kim took the only chair as Bryant inspected the shelves of video tapes.

‘There are only two for that date. One for day and one for night. Tapes are only changed every twelve hours.’

‘So, now we’re talking time lapse?’

‘Afraid so,’ he said, grabbing the tape. From an evidence point of view real time video was acceptable, as it captured everything in full. Time lapse recording grabbed an image every few seconds which gave a mechanical motion to the video, almost like a collection of screen shots.

Kim put the video into the machine. The screen came to life. She forwarded the tape to the rough time of day.

Kim stared at the screen. ‘Are you seeing what I’m seeing?’

‘Tape degradation. Shit, you can’t make out a damn thing.’

Kim sat back in the chair. ‘How many times have these tapes been used?’

‘Looking at that, we’re talking hundreds.’

CCTV tapes were normally destroyed after twelve cycles to prevent what was showing on the screen now.

Kim continued to watch the shadows of figures entering and leaving the foyer.

‘Jesus, it could even be me.’

Bryant looked at her seriously. ‘Is it you, Guv?’

Kim leaned back and opened the door.

‘Cath,’ she shouted. ‘Got a minute?’

Cath appeared at the door. ‘Really, Detective, there’s no need to ...’

‘We’re taking this tape.’

Cath shrugged. ‘Okay.’

‘Do you have a release form for us to sign?’

‘A what?’

Kim rolled her eyes. ‘Bryant.’

He ripped a page from his pocket notebook and wrote down the tape rotation number, their names and the police station.

Cath took it, although she was clearly unsure why.

‘Cath, you do realise that this system is pretty much useless?’

The woman looked at her as though she was stupid. ‘It’s a care home, Detective, hardly crime central.’