Why was this person there? What did he witness?
Ethel continued, interrupting Nicoleâs thoughts, âIâve reviewed all the footage, but I couldnât find any evidence of this person entering the office.
This individual must have avoided the cameras somehow.
â
Anyone who deliberately avoided surveillance had something to hide.
That much was clear.
This mysterious person had clearly planned something sinister before entering the building.
âBut maybe, in his panic, he slipped up,â Ethel speculated, leaning over the monitor.
âHe forgot about the corner camera while Leaving the office, and then remembered and avoided the rest.
â
Ethel paused the footage.
âFrom this floor down, he vanished.
â
Identifying someone from a blurry image was no easy task.
The suit the individual wore didnât help.
Everyone in the office dressed smartly, and it only made things harder.
âs BunnyBookery Nicole felt lost as she squinted at the screen.
She couldnât quite place the figure.
Ethel rewound the footage.
âBut I scoured every angle of the building and finally got a clear shot on the second-floor corner.
He jumped out of a window onto the platform below, dodging the cameras.
â
Nicoleâs suspicion deepened.
Who wo uld go to such lengths to avoid being seen unless they were hiding something serious?
Ethelâs fingers flew over the keyboard.
âTech analysis confirms this is the same person who came from Mr.
Lawrenceâs office.
Miss Lawrence, do you recognize him?â
The footage was grainy and aged, so the quality was degraded.
One could barely make out the personâs pixeled face and the black suit.
However, the partial frontal view caught a frustrated expression on the individualâs face.
Nicole leaned closer, a strange familiarity tingling in the back of her mind.
âItâs him!â she exclaimed.
Ethelâs eyes lit up.
âMiss Lawrence, you recognize this person?â
Ethel had spent countless hours, night after night, piecing together the surveillance puzzle.
She had painstakingly tracked this person frame by frame, finally finding a reasonably clear image.
Yet, the footage was just clear enough for someone who knew the person to recognize them.
To an unfamiliar eye, it would be almost impossible to make out any definitive details.
Here they were.
Nicole had recognized him.
Her persistence had finally paid off.
Nicole nodded.
âThatâs Brett, my fatherâs assistant.
â
Nicole wouldnât have remembered a regular employee.
There were thousands in the Lawrence Group.
But Brett, as her fatherâs assistant, had interacted with her often.
The frown on the screen was unmistakably his.
Ethel leaned in, urgency in her voice.
âDo you know where Brett is now?â
Nicole paused, her mind racing.
This revelation opened a Labyrinth of questions she wasnât ready to face.
The dayâs meeting had been somber, with all the employees receiving their final compensation before leaving the company for good.
Nicole had no idea where Brett had vanished to.
Yet, the more she pondered, something about his absence nagged at her.
At her fatherâs memorial, the room had been filled with the companyâs employees, all there to honor the man who had been more than just a superior.