“I’ve basically torn the upstairs apart,” she confessed. “Including any suspicious-looking spots in the floor. If there’s another piece of equipment, it has to be somewhere down here.”
“You said Dr. Cost mentioned a remote,” Edward noted. “That would mean the most likely place was in this room.”
“True, except the one for that old set was lost ages ago. I guess she might have found it.” CJ propped her hands on her hips. “But I’ve searched every square inch of the walls and there are no holes that would provide the necessary view for the camera lens.”
He surveyed the room. “What about the bookshelves?” He nodded toward the pair of bookshelves that flanked the century-old coal fireplace.
“I pulled everything off the shelves. Didn’t find anything.”
He walked the length of the room. Considered the options. “What about the furniture? The television?”
“I checked the television.” It was one of the old floor models from the seventies. It was a miracle it still worked. “I even removed the back panel.”
He carefully surveyed the sofa. She tried not to look guilty considering what she’d done on that sofa. Edward moved to the chairs in the room, checked those as well.
Then he took a moment, turning around slowly to consider the room. “Perhaps the VCR is in the crawl space under the floor.”
“Already thought of that. It’s not.”
“What about the fireplace?” He started in that direction. “Did you inspect it closely?”
“I looked, but it’s a disaster. I don’t see how an electronic device could survive in there.”
“Well.” He crouched down. “We’ll see.”
CJ was reasonably sure the fallen bricks and mortar piled atop the coal basket had been there a few decades. “I’ll get a trash bag.”
Edward started to pick through the rubble. “That would be a good idea.”
When she returned from the kitchen with a trash bag he was inspecting a black box.
“You found it!” She dropped to her knees next to him. The VCR was dusty as hell.
“It was under that plastic container.” He nodded to the pile of discarded rubble.
Shelley had taken a plastic storage container, cut out a portion of one long side, and used the container to protect the VCR from debris. She’d had it well camouflaged with all the rubble that had fallen over the years.
“How was it plugged in?” She wouldn’t have thought to look there for another obvious reason: no power supply.
Edward pointed to an extension cord amid the remainder of the rubble. “It was hidden behind the screen, looped into the bookcase.” He bent down, peered into the bottom shelf. “There has to be an access to power there.”
CJ lifted up on the bottom shelf. It moved. “What the ...?” She’d missed that too. A hole had been drilled in the floor beneath that shelf and an extension cord run through the hole from the crawl space.
“It’s probably plugged into an exterior outlet.”
CJ wasn’t aware they even had an exterior outlet. “This is nuts.” How had she missed that extension cord? Probably because it had been dark and damp under the floor. She’d scurried around like a mole and then gotten the hell out.
She inspected the VCR. “Will it turn on? Is there a tape inside?” Her heart started that frantic pounding.
He pushed the power button. A red light blinked to life. Then he pressed the eject button. Her chest constricted as the grinding sound echoed in the silence. The door opened, but there was no tape.
“Damn.” She sat back on the floor. “All this searching.” She glanced around the room. “And nothing.”
“At least you know Cost was telling the truth.” He settled on the floor near her feet. “There’s no wire leading to a camera.” He turned the VCR over and inspected the back. “Ah. Wireless.”
Anticipation zinged her. “So there has to be a camera in here somewhere.” She scrambled up and started her search again. Finding thecamera likely wouldn’t help, but it was something she needed to do. She hadn’t worked this hard to settle for half of what she’d been looking for.
“There’s likely a distance limitation,” Edward offered. “So it would probably be close by.”
