"It's a camera?"Charlotte said, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her.

The reason she was shocked at what she was looking at was that she was aware that officers searched and overturned everywhere.  They had even cleared the victim's items out. The place was empty.

How could a camera have escaped their notice then?

"Hey, Anderson! I found something! "she called from upstairs.

She heard a faint "coming" and then footsteps.

"What did you find?"he asked when he got upstairs.

"This."Charlotte said, holding the camera up.

He looked as puzzled as she felt.

"But how? The officers have checked everywhere. "he said.

"That's what I said too."she replied.

"Have you tried turning it on?"he asked, scanning it with his eyes

"Yeah, but it's not coming up," Charlotte said as she extended it to James for him to try his luck.

James tried unsuccessfully for a few seconds to turn it on, but it didn't come on.

"I have one of those 'manyheads usb.' I think one should work for this."James said and started to make his way to the car.

Charlotte followed behind, trying to get over the fact that James just called it a 'manyheads usb'.

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Immediately, they got into the car, James started trying the cords one by one, and fortunately, one worked for the camera.

It blinked a green light at the top for a few seconds, and then the screen came up completely white. After about a minute, it started buzzing and came up with weird numbers and letters on the screen.

"Isn't this one of the old camera models? What the hell is this?"James said while furrowing his brows.

"I didn't know they could do this."Charlotte agreed and then looked at it for a few more seconds, trying to understand what she was looking at.

"Let me take a picture and send it to Newt," she said and brought out her phone.

After about 5 minutes, Newt responded.

N: I've never seen anything like that, but it looks encrypted.
C: Oh geez. You can do that to cameras?
N: Well. Anyways just bring it to the station.
C: All right, we're on our way.

"So he says it's encrypted and we should bring it to the station."Charlotte said to James, who was still intently looking at it.

"I guessed as much."James responded as they made their way to the station.

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When they got to the station,  Charlotte asked James the most pressing question on her mind.

"Isn't this all weird to you?"

"Dealing with weird stuff is a big part of our job. But this kind of weirdness has my head spinning. I don't quite understand what is happening. We need to speak to the officers who were at the scene."

"Yeah, definitely. "Charlotte responded.

She began to have other doubts.

What if one of the officers were in on it? That didn't make any sense to her, though, because why would they leave a camera then? Or was the camera bait to lead them off track?

She would have to worry about that after Newt deciphers what's in the camera. She looked over at James and could almost see the wheels turning in his head. She was sure he was also anxious and paranoid about this new development.

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"Here's the camera."Charlotte said to Newt as she brought out the camera from the evidence bag.

"Okay, woah. It's an old model. What sort of tampering did they do on this thing? I'm impressed."Newt said, looking fascinated by what he was looking at.

From the corner of her eye,  she saw James roll his eyes.

"Alright, let me see what this is about," Newt said as he plugged the camera into his computer.

"This better not be a virus," he muttered under his breath as he began working on it.

Charlotte tried to keep up with what he was doing, but he was typing too fast and moving the mouse so quickly. She eventually had to give up.

After about 5 minutes, Newt spoke up, "So I looked through it, and I figured out the encryption used. It's actually complex but can be done by any professional. It's almost as if they want us to get through, but take some time doing this."

Charlotte and James exchanged glances. Their suspicions kept growing.

"I'll need the whole day to work on it, but I should be done by tomorrow. "Newt continued.

"The whole day?"James said, looking frustrated.

"Yep."Newt responded.

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"Let's go back to the house and check again. "James suggested.

"I agree," Charlotte responded. She had been thinking the same thing.

When they got to the house, they started searching again. This time, there was a different air in the atmosphere.  Everything was carefully done to ensure they didn't miss any details.

Charlotte went into the bathroom and found another camera in the built-in cabinet. The cabinet was empty except for the drawer. There was no way the officers could have skipped that. It was all so strange.

Did someone break into the house?

She went into the study and found another one resting on the bookshelf.  She went into the second bedroom upstairs and found nothing.

She went downstairs to look for James and found him holding a camera, too.

"I found this in the kitchen. In the food cabinet. It was empty. "James said.

They just stared at the camera in their hands for a few seconds before gathering their composure and making their way back to the station.

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When they got to the station, they checked the items into evidence and then gave them to Newt to unscramble.

He told them it would still take a day because he could do them all at once.

After that, Charlotte called Matthew, the officer who responded to the 911 call and asked him to meet with her and James the next day because she was puzzled and needed an explanation.

Charlotte knew from the start that the case wouldn't be an easy one, but now she felt a knot in her stomach. She couldn't tell if it was good or bad. She wondered if they were getting to their goal or if they were about to be led astray.

Thank you so much if you've read this far, your support means a lot to me.

Tag for the chapter:  proud_warrior