Disappearance

16

"Can I help you?" An elder man shouted from behind a locked door, opening it a pinch to see who knocked on his door. 

"Good Afternoon Sir, My name is Super Intendant Oliver Lark, I wanted to speak to you about the disappearance of Francis Postell. The second Story of your house looks diagonally into the place she was abducted and I was wondering if you had seen or heard anything and if you had cameras that saw something. Honestly, anything would be helpful."  SI Lark Stated, almost whispering so nobody around him could hear, however loud enough so the man behind the door could. 

The man then shut the door and Lark could hear him unlock it as the door then opened and the elderly man was in full view. "Please come in Mr Lark, I will show you upstairs." The man said as Lark nodded his head and walked in, rubbing his boots on the welcome mat so no dirt came into his house. "Thank you very much, sir, Mind me asking your name?"  "Rodrick, Rodrick Jameson. Now please come this way, I will show you to the room overlooking the park." The elderly man stated as he started walking up the stairs with his cane, SI Lark walking a step behind Rodrick the whole way up. Once they reached the second floor there were three doors joined together by a long hallway. Rodrick turned right and walked down the hallway, opening the door at the end of the hallway and walking into a large, room lit up by the floor-to-ceiling height window. You definitely couldn't tell the wall was actually a window from the park, but the room was simplistic and stunning. 

"Welcome to my bird-watching room, Mr Lark." Rodrick turned to him with a big grin as he continued. "Some men have man caves, I have a bird-watching room. This room is my happy place, I could stay up here in the trees forever. As you can see,  from up here most of the park is in view, with only a few bits blocked by the trees." Richard said, admiring the beauty of the park around him. 

"There, diagonal and to the left, was the place where you lot had lots of yellow tape and police everywhere. It was very worrying to look at, almost invasive really, so I closed my windows for a few days. Then I saw the poor kid on the news when I was watching television, took two and two, put them together and called my son, told him I loved him, It was very scary, even scarier that it was so close to home. Oh, I couldn't imagine." Rodrick spoke softly, pointing to the exact place where Francis was abducted, never taking his eyes off the spot. 

SI Lark felt his heart sink once again, remembering the yellow tape and police running about, trying to find anything. He took a deep breath and continued."Rodrick, would you happen to have any cameras or know anything about what happened on Wednesday, July 26th? Anything you can think off would help us immensely." Carefully watching Rodrick as he went deep into thought, then after about a minute of silent thought, he looked at Oliver, almost as if a lightbulb went off in his mind.

"Well Mr Lark, When I moved into this house two years back, my son set up security cameras around the house for extra protection. Two are facing the park, one on either side of the window wall. They all run 24/7 so we could see if the cameras caught anything from that day." Rodrick stated, as he walked out of the room and walked into the second room, which was very clearly an office. Super Intendant Oliver Lark couldn't help but wonder why a man on his own was living in such a big house, though he would never bring it up. They walked into a large office and Rodrick sat down in a large black chair behind a glass desk. He started up the computer with a face of great focus.

"Now then, ahh here we are, July 26th, that was just under a week ago. What time range am I looking for?" Rodrick said looking up at Oliver, who was standing behind him. "She was last seen at 2:30pm, so maybe start at 12 and go from there." Oliver responded as Rodrick went to work, scanning through that Wednesday morning until he got too 12pm noon. He than stopped and zoomed the footage forward two times, slow enough to see faces but faster than normal pase when at the 2:25pm timestamp, Francis Postell came into view. 

"Woah, could we please go back to 2:20pm and go normal speed?" SI Lark spoke, leaning in to see the computer screen closer to get a better look. "Of course, let me do this and there we go." Rodrick mumbled as he pressed a few buttons and turned back the time frame and pressed space. Lark took a deep breath, preparing himself and Rodrick stood up. "Before I press Enter and start the camera feed, please take my seat. It will provide you with a better view than sitting behind me. I feel extremely invasive again."  Rodrick whispered as Olliver Lark sat down and Rodrick pressed play. Oliver noticed Rodrick stood back to watch but was more focused on the footage in front of him, his eyes went wide as he noticed Francis come back onto the screen. 

He watched her every move when he saw her stop and look into the bushes, her back facing the camera but her body movements look like she is talking to someone. Oliver looked closer into the bushes when he saw an arm reach out and grab her, pulling her in forcefully, he jumped back in fear. He then  reversed the footage and watched it again. Francis was talking to someone for about a minute to a minute and a half before someone grabbed her arm. It was the sleeve on her arm than stuck out to Oliver. without saying a word, he reversed the footage one more time and focused in on what the arm was wearing. When it appeared, Oliver froze the footage. 

"Oh my god." Oliver whispered, just loud enough for Rodrick to hear, Rodrick leaned forward and looked at what Lark had seen. "Holy shit... Is that..." Rodrick stated, not being able to finish his sentence, when Lark replied.

"Yes Rodrick, that is the official police uniform. The person who kidnapped Francis is a police officer. I am going to need a copy of this footage please."