CHAPTER SEVEN — THE EMPTY CAN
Friday’s inspection took place in a basement room at city hall that smelled of paper dust and fresh paint.
Anika admitted Emily, Helen, Malik, and an archivist named Celeste Ward.
Four metal cans rested on a table covered in archival paper.
One had a blue arrow on its lid.
Emily moved closer.
The scratch shaped like a half-moon was missing.
“That’s not the same can,” she said.
Celeste frowned.
“What makes you certain?”
Emily showed her the photograph.
Celeste examined the image under a magnifier.
“This one has been painted recently.”
She rubbed a gloved finger near the arrow without touching the pigment.
“And the label looks like office tape, not the older paper on the others.”
Anika took a photograph and added it to the inspection record.
Celeste opened the blue-arrow can.
Inside was a short advertising reel from a hardware store, followed by several feet of blank leader.
Helen stared at the film.
“That’s not what I edited.”
Emily felt an urge to slam the can shut.
Instead, she asked Celeste to document its contents exactly as found.
“Someone wants us to think the documentary was junk,” she said.
Anika did not disagree.
She called the municipal legal office and requested that the disposition of remaining film materials be suspended.
The archivist examined the other three cans.
Two contained ordinary newsreels, and one held a badly faded animated short.
None contained the missing documentary.
“If the original can was here Tuesday, someone moved it,” Malik said.
Anika reminded him that the photographic evidence did not establish where it had gone.
“Then we find the person who moved it,” Emily replied.
She called Daniel Park from the hallway.
He agreed to meet the city investigator that afternoon and identify the warehouse entrance where he had delivered the crate.
When Emily returned, Helen was holding the original screening order.
“There’s something I forgot,” she said.
“What?”
“The final reel wasn’t finished when we labeled it.”
“You told me you cut every frame.”
“I did, but the sound was recorded separately.”
Celeste looked up.
“Separate magnetic tape?”
“Yes.”
“Where was it stored?”
Helen closed her eyes.
“In the cabinet beside the projector.”
Anika checked the inventory.
“There is a sound cabinet listed.”
“Has anyone opened it?” Emily asked.
“Not yet.”
“Then we need to.”
Anika explained that workers had delayed removing the cabinet because its mounting bolts were rusted.
The next authorized removal was scheduled for Saturday morning.
“Saturday is when Victor wants to preview the contents,” Emily said.
Anika checked her notes.
“The private preview has been canceled pending the inventory.”
Emily should have felt relieved.
Instead, she thought of Daniel’s description of three crates already inside Victor’s private warehouse.
Stopping a preview did not return objects someone had moved.
