Harry clicked on the first recording, which was labelled20:02:10.
Darkness. Light behind the curtain in the kitchen window. But someone, or something, was moving in the darkness and had triggered the recording. Damn, he should have followed the advice of the guy in the shop and bought a more expensive camera with Zero Blur technology. Or was it No Glow? Either way, something that meant you could see what was in front of the camera even in the middle of the night. Suddenly, there was light on the steps as the front door opened, and in the doorway stood a shape that could only be Rakel. She stood there for a couple of seconds before she let a different shape in, then the door closed behind them.
Harry was breathing hard through his nose.
Several long seconds passed, then the image froze.
The next recording started at 20:29:25. Harry clicked on it. The front door was open, but the lights in the living room and kitchen were switched off, or dimmed, so he could hardly see the shape that came out, closed the door behind it and went down the steps before disappearing into the darkness. But this was half past eight in the evening, an hour and a half before the window suggested by Forensics. The next clips were the important ones.
Harry could feel his palms sweating as he clicked on the third thumbnail, labelled23:21:09.
A car swept across the drive. The headlights lit up the wall of the house before it came to a stop right in front of the steps and the lights went out. Harry stared at the screen, trying in vain to make his eyes bore into the darkness.
The seconds ticked past on the clock, but nothing happened. Was the driver sitting inside the dark car waiting for someone? No, because the recording hadn’t stopped, so the camera’s sensor was still detecting movement. Then, at last, Harry saw something. Faint light fell across the steps as the front door opened and what looked like a hunched figure went inside. The door closed, and the image went dark again. And froze a few seconds later.
He clicked on the last recording before midnight. 23:38:21.
Darkness.
Nothing.
What had the camera’s PIR sensor detected? Something that was moving and had a pulse, at least; a different temperature to everything else.
After thirty seconds the recording stopped.
It could have been someone moving across the drive in front of the house. But also a bird, a cat, a dog. Harry rubbed his face hard. What the hell was the point of a wildlife camera with sensors that were far more sensitive than the lens? He vaguely remembered the sales assistant in the shop saying something along those lines when he was trying to persuade Harry to spend a bit more money on the camera. But that was back when Harry was first starting to have trouble financing his drinking and still keeping a roof over his head.
“Have we got anything?” Kaja asked, putting one of the cups down in front of him.
“Something, but not enough.” Harry clicked the thumbnail for 11 March. One recording. 02:23:12.
“Cross your fingers,” he said, and pressed Play.
The front door opened, and a shape could just be made out in the weak grey light from the hall. It stood there for a few seconds, looked like it was swaying. Then the door closed and everything was completely dark again.
“He’s leaving,” Harry said.
Light.
The car’s headlights came on; the rear lights glowed red as well. The reversing light came on. Then they all went out again and everything was dark.
“He’s switched the engine off again,” Kaja said. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know.” Harry leaned closer to the screen. “There’s someone approaching, can you see?”
“No.”
The picture jolted, and the outline of the house became crooked. Another jolt, and it was even more crooked. Then the recording stopped.
“What was that?”
“He pulled the camera down,” Harry said.
“Surely we should have seen him if he walked from the car to the camera?”
“He approached it from the side,” Harry said. “You could just see him approach, from off to the left.”
“Why walk around? If he was going to get rid of the recordings, I mean?”
