IMAGINATION'S PLACE
FICTION
WHAT HIDDEN CAMERAS SEE!
By; Gerald A. Polley
Crime scene investigator Paul Harrison was getting really
tired of his job. It was the same stuff over and over again, the
same bloody messes. Here he was in another lavish apartment with
six bodies on the floor and blood everywhere. Mary Hill, his
buxom brunette assistant looked around curiously. "Is it
me," she commented, "or shouldn't there be a lot more
blood around here? It just seems like there should be more of
it." Paul looked around. "Well, now that you mention
it," he agreed, "there does seem to be a little bit
less than usual! But what caused this blood bath? Who did these
people upset so much?"
"Well, the landlady was telling me," one of the men
commented, "that they seemed to have an awful lot of parties
here, usually older men, convention types. The three ladies were
the occupiers of the apartments. These two young gentlemen their
normal companions. This other guy nobody knows who he is! These
five have all been shot with a 45. He's been shot with a nine
millimeter which is over there laying next to that young lady. It
looks like he shot them and she shot him."
Paul got mister 45 automatic's i.d. "Out of towner," he
remarked. "From the driver's license from Chicago. What's
this? A business card. Well, he's U.S. Navy retired! How much you
wanna bet he was Navy security?" Paul began to search the
walls, going in and out of the other rooms. He nodded. "It's
here somewhere!" he muttered. "What?" one of the
officers asked.
"A secret room," Paul answered, "probably only
about two feet wide. If I'm right it's got cameras pointing into
that bedroom and into this livingroom." After a few minutes
more searching he found a panel, flipped a switch, and the wall
opened. Inside were two video cameras, recording equipment, wires
running in from two others, and all kinds of discs. Paul noticed
one camera was blinking, the one pointing to the livingroom. The
others weren't watching. He rewound the disc and began to play it
fast forward. He saw the people enter the room, the man come in
with the last girl shoving her inside, the gun already in his
hand. He just started shooting, no conversation, he just started
popping away! The last girl grabbed the gun from underneath the
table and got off a shot before she was hit. Then after a few
moments when there was no more sound in the room the disc
stopped. Then it started again. There was something walking in
from the balcony. It was carrying six containers. It was about
six feet tall, had large, leathery wings, and was covered with
soft, plushy fur. A man in armor followed it, and an attractive
woman. Each of them carried similar containers.
"Well, well!" the winged being muttered, "Just
what our friends are looking for! Nice fresh blood. You get those
over there, I'll get these two." He opened the containers
and held out his hand. The blood lifted up off the floor and
neatly flowed into the container. It stopped and he sealed it,
and repeated with the other five until they were all full.
"This will make a whole bunch of nice work clones for our
friends," the winged being remarked. "Come on, let's
go!"
He and the others retreated, the disc stopped again and did not
start up until a man walked in the door, cried "Oh my
God!" and ran out. Paul stopped the video camera, pressed
"Last Section," looked at the time code, and then
pressed "Erase." When he played the disc again the
section with the strange visitors was gone. It only showed the
shooting and the man finding the bodies. His assistant came in.
"Anything good?" she asked.
"The whole murder," Paul remarked, "nothing
unusual."
His assistant looked at him. "Why do I have the feeling
there's going to be a considerable time gap on that disc,"
she remarked. "Like a lot of others we've been finding
lately?"
"Nothing peculiar," Paul answered. "Just the way
this equipment works. It's only activated when there's another
sound. Nobody entered the room for some time after the shooting
was done."
"Sure!" his assistant remarked. "Maybe it was
vampire bats! They came in and lapped up the blood without making
any noise that would activate the cameras."
"Hmmm!" Paul remarked. "Be sure to check for
footprints on the floor." His assistant grinned at him.
Later when Paul was alone by his car he took out his cell phone
and punched a number, then pressed an access code. "This is
New York," he muttered. "Will you please tell them to
be more careful? I had to erase evidence at a crime scene again!
Isn't there some way they can detect concealed cameras? It's
getting harder and harder to cover things up! Message New York
agent concluded." He disconnected and shut the cell phone.
Yes, this job was really getting boring. It was the same old
stuff over and over again, never anything new!
THE END
Be courteous to all, but
intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you
give them your confidence.
( George Washington )