Page 40 of Their Wicked Secrets: Untouched, Vol 5 of 6

Eli shakes his head. “But it does some rapid-fire shots. It’ll depend on how whoever put it up there set it up. Depending on the SD card, it could have a lot of pictures to sift through. In the tens of thousands. We need to be careful opening it. It takes twelve AA batteries. Recommended rechargeable.”

I nod. “Gloves and a container in case they’re leaking.”

Caden stands and heads upstairs. My parents are used to the guys coming and going from the basement rec room. They won’t know Harper is here unless they come downstairs, and usually my dad is good about leaving us to whatever we’re doing.

The lock clicks, and I pull it open. Setting it to the side, I hope nothing is leaking. I hold out my hand to Eli, knowing he’ll have the schematics pulled up. He puts the phone in my hand, and I look over how this thing was made. Where the battery compartment is and where the SD card goes in.

“The batteries are right next to the SD card.” I sigh and hand Eli back the phone. “It doesn’t mean it will be damaged, but we’ll need to be careful.”

Rechargeable batteries generally don’t leak like disposable. But fifteen years with varying temperature extremes... who knows what we’ll find when we open the box.

Caden comes back and tosses the gloves my way and sets down a glass container. It’ll do.

Harper shifts next to me and runs her hands up and down her thighs. “It was aimed in the direction of where you guys thought the meeting would happen.”

Luke grabs her hand and holds it on his lap. “The reality is it might have sat too long, and we’ll get nothing useful from it. You have to prepare yourself for that.”

“But it could,” she argues. “It could have my dad and your dad and what happened at that meeting.” Her gaze dances around to each of us. “It could unravel everything.”

“It’s a camera, not video. We’ll have what they did, but likely it will just be them standing there talking.” I don’t want her to get her hopes up. “If he had a recording device⁠—”

“There could have been one. We can go back and look.”

Luke tips her face his way. “This won’t be a smoking gun, Harper. It will be part of what we’ll have against our fathers, but it won’t be everything. We’ve been through this too many times before.”

We all nod and make an acknowledging noise. Whenever we think we’ve found the key to get us free of this town, it’s never enough.

“It will be a part of the puzzle or it will be nothing, but the likelihood of it being a smoking gun is minimal.”

“I just want this part to be done.” She leans into Luke, and he draws her onto his lap. She snuggles against him.

We’re all ready to finish this. Whether it’s ending Zach’s plan, figuring out what the hell is going on at our school, or escaping our parents’ legacy.

It doesn’t surprise me that my dad left the group first. He’s strong and definitely takes charge when he needs to, but he also respects my mother and her ambitions. He loves me and Lucy. He supports me and my friends when he can.

I brace myself for disappointment when I slide on the gloves and open the camera.

The batteries rest on one side of the open case while the camera components rest on the other. Cautiously, I drag a tissue across the batteries to see if anything is leaking.

When the tissue comes away dry, I release my breath.

“The batteries all look intact. None of them are bulging or leaking.” I drag the tissue across the camera side. “If any moisture got in, it’s dry now.”

That’s the part that worries me the most. Moisture. It could ruin the batteries or the SD card. The actual case doesn’t appear damaged. I just hope the card is intact. There are ways of getting the data off a damaged SD card, but it won’t be easy and might not be in my wheelhouse.

I check the SD slot and breathe out when there’s a card in it. Harper would have been devastated if she went through all that for nothing. I press on the SD card and it pops out. Carefully, I slide it out and put it on a piece of paper.

“You’ll upload the images to the cloud so we can divide and conquer.” Eli waits for me to look up at him. “You can’t go through everything alone. If you don’t sleep, Harper’s going to roofie you.”

“Harper can roofie me anytime.” Caden chuckles. But when my eyes meet Harper’s, concern lingers there. She’s worried about me.

“Yes, I’ll upload them to the cloud and make duplicates and maintain the original file.” Slowly, I pull out the batteries, one by one, and put them in the container. They were good quality back then, but they’ll need to be disposed of properly.

I need her to be prepared. “There might not be anything. A leaf could have blocked the lens.”

Harper straightens. “I understand, and I know that. I just... We need something to go our way. Anything.”

I fucking hope this is the turning point we all need.