He nodded.“Correct, sir.”
Abundio sat back.“Continue.”
The woman continued straight on into Jacinta’s office and closed the door.Not once did she look up, as if looking for cameras, but she also seemed unusually attuned to where they would be placed and avoided them, strategically turning her face.He couldn’t even tell what color her hair was.
And, of course, she wore that garment.
Once it played all the way through, he had him go back and roll it again.“What about when she left?”
The tech fast-forwarded the feeds but didn’t have to go far.The visitor left 17.4 minutes after entering.
And she paused at the front desk, extending her hand to Emilita, who shook with her.
He leaned in close as it looked like the woman said something to her, and Emilita froze, apparently in a trance, slowly nodding in a completely unnatural way.When the woman released her hand, Emilita returned to her work as if nothing had happened while the woman left.
“We don’t have sound?”Abundio asked.
“No, sir,” the tech said.“You ordered video-only earlier this year when we upgraded them.You said you didn’t want people able to tap into audio and surveil the office that way.”
Abundio let out a roar and resisted the urge to hurl the tech’s laptop into one of the windows.“All right,” he growled.“Play it all again.”
Then he called Emilita back into the office and had her watch it.When it reached the point where the woman left, she leaned in, scowling, and stared at the video.“What on earth—I swear to you, this must be faked!I have no memory whatsoever of her leaving!”
Abundio looked to the security guy, who shook her head.“There’s no way it can be faked or AI.This is what happened.
Emilita emphatically shook her head, apparently on the verge of hysterics from her shrill tone.“I am telling you, that isnotwhat happened!”She pointed at the computer.“It isimpossible!”
Abundio considered himself a good judge of people and normally would not have believed anyone else saying that.
But Emilita’s body language, everything, matched her words.
He stood as tears ran down her cheeks while she continued shaking her head back and forth.“No!Sir, please, you have to believe me!”
He pulled her in for a hug.“Shh,” he said.“I do believe you.”She broke down sobbing.“Because I know what I see on that screen is someone who deliberately obscured their appearance in an unusual way.I don’t know how she did what she did, but she hypnotized you or something.”He stared at the frame, frozen on the woman holding Emilita’s hand.“Your face went blank and you froze when she shook your hand.I don’t know how she did it, but she did something to you.”
She sobbed even harder, and he motioned for the computer tech, who stood off to the side observing all this, to take her out.“Get her some coffee or something in the break room.Please comfort her.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You, stay,” he said to the security officer.
Once they were alone, Abundio dropped into the chair again and ran through the footage.He froze it on the woman reaching out and taking Emilita’s hand.“She did something to her,” he said.“I don’t know what, or how, but she did something to Emilita.”
“Are you…sure, sir?”
“You can put her through a lie detector test, if you want.But even if we were to torture her, her story would remain the same—which we’renot,” he quickly added when the guy looked horrified.
The man relaxed, visibly relieved.
Abundio sat back, pointing at the screen.“I need to do some research.But perhaps my nephew truly did stumble over something completely remarkable.Perhaps he wasn’t as mad as I believed him to be.”
“Sir?”
Abundio slowly swiveled the chair as he pondered his options.“We have a strange woman without a name suddenly showing up first thing in the morning.She is not on the schedule.This same morning, the building’s entire security system malfunctions.When the woman leaves, she pauses to speak with Emilita, and now Emilita’s memory is erased.And this evening, Jacinta kills herself after telling the priest that she has something big to reveal.”
He looked at the security tech—whose name hereallyneeded to learn.“As if she werecompelledto do so.”He focused on the security tech.“Do you know what so many pieces of coincidence and circumstantial evidence fitted together are called?”
The man shook his head.
