CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE CAMERA RECORDING
Detective Sato called me the next afternoon.
She confirmed that a technician had recovered several short clips from the memory card.
She did not describe every image because the investigation remained open.
She asked whether I remembered the night Celia visited the schoolhouse.
I said the alley lights had been on until late, but I had stayed indoors with Lily.
The detective asked whether anyone had used our gate that evening.
I remembered a scraping sound near the fence, followed by a car door closing.
At the time, I had assumed a delivery driver was turning around.
Rina said the footage showed someone walking from the schoolhouse to our camera and testing how far the recording angle extended.
She did not say who the person was.
She explained that the footage needed to be interpreted alongside the witness statements and building records.
I was relieved that she was not treating a blurry nighttime clip as the whole case.
I asked whether the camera would be returned.
She said the memory card would remain in evidence for now and could be released later under the proper process.
Then she asked a question that surprised me.
‘Had you told Vera that the camera used a removable card?’
I thought back to the day we installed it.
Vera had stood by our fence and asked whether the device recorded sound.
I had said it did not.
She asked whether footage went to a remote service.
I explained that it stayed on a card inside the housing.
At the time,
her curiosity seemed ordinary.
Now the questions felt different.
I told Rina what I remembered.
She thanked me and ended the call.
That evening, I found Vera gathering broken branches from her garden.
I told her the police had recovered footage.
She nodded without surprise.
‘You knew how the card worked because I told you,’ I said.
‘Yes,’ she answered.
‘You waited until you could take it.’
She placed the branches in a brown paper bag.
‘Yes.’
I asked whether she had planned the destruction in advance.
Vera said Graham had called after Celia’s visit and complained about my camera.
He told Vera it could reveal when people entered the schoolhouse and how the exercise was arranged.
She brought the stool and spade outside before dawn because she thought nobody would be watching.
She had planned to leave a note offering payment after the showcase.
‘You were going to lie to my face until the event was over,’ I said.
Vera lifted her gaze.
‘I was going to lie as long as you let me.’
The admission hurt more than another excuse would have.
I went home without responding.
I was beginning to understand that the camera was not the only thing she had damaged between our houses.
