We had played the footage over and over again. If you didn't look closely, to be honest, you'd miss the figure. She darted so fast, a clear attempt to dodge the surveillance cameras.
It meant she knew about the cameras, but not that the power had been out that night. The cameras were off.
Without that GPS snapshot, we'd be clueless, unaware of this whole scene.
"It's gotta be Fidelia!" Camilla nodded emphatically. "I'd recognize the way she runs anywhere."
"Are you sure, Camilla?" I squinted at the screen, still uncertain. "But the figure looks like a kid!"
Hannah snorted. "I can't believe the nerve of that child. Alone in the dead of night, she just takes off! But hey, at least she's alone."
Camilla shot her a questioning look. "What do you mean by that?"
Only I got the subtext in Hannah's quip.
"She means it's easier if she's by herself," I explained to Camilla. "Our theory about her being taken... it doesn't hold up. This is good news!"
Relief flooded through me. As long as she wasn't snatched up by some creeps, we had hope.
I turned to the young officer. "What's our next move?"
He signaled for me to wait, then took out his phone and reported back to the station—"they'd confirmed it was the kid.”
Camilla's expression darkened, and there was a flicker of something fierce in her eyes that made me shiver. That wasn't a look I was used to seeing on her.
After the call, the officer said to me, "Ms. Wilburn, we've got people on the search now!"
Hannah pointed to the screen. "She went across the street... Why? Why'd she do that?"
Then she turned to me. "Allie, we should get Monique to come with us. She knows these streets better than any of us."
I immediately agreed with Hannah's suggestion. "Let's find Monique, get her on this. Maybe she can shed some light."
Hannah stood up. "I'm on it."
Ever since Monique and Probert came to town, they'd ditched their phones, sticking to the area between the Damon family's place and the Wood Manor, never venturing beyond Oldtown Avenue without checking in.
But Hannah was gone for over half an hour, and when she came back, she asked, "Have Monique and the others returned?"
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