Page 81 of Stolen


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chapter 36

It’s easier to avoid CCTV cameras than you think.

You don’t have to go down the rabbit hole of conspiracy-theorist hacks you’ll find online: laser pointers, frequency jamming, baseball hats that block electromagnetic fields using Faraday cages.

You just have to know where to look.

There are CCTV maps of most big cities on the internet these days. They’ll tell you which street corners to avoid, what cameras are dummies, how to move unobtrusively from one blind spot to another.

But you can’t dodge them all. And I’ve found the best way to avoid being noticed in the first place is to surround yourself with people who look like you.

When I first took the child, I made the mistake of hiding out in a sketchy part of town, where I thought no one would ask questions. But I quickly realised we stuck out like sore thumbs amid the cockle-pickers and asylum seekers, with our clean hair and white faces. As soon as we opened our mouths, we betrayed our middle-class, Boden origins.

We need to lose ourselves among our own kind if we want to blend in.

The girl is thrilled to leave the confines of the damp B&B. We drive north and I check into a hotel in a well-heeled part of the city, where we look like everyone else.

I can’t keep her cooped up inside all the time, not if I want things to work between us. It’s a risk to take her out in public, but I count on the fact we look like we belong together. She holds my hand and bounces excitedly in her seat on the train, eager for our next adventure.

We could be any mother and daughter. I even spot another woman wearing the same fleece as me, down to the contrast stitching on the cuffs. It’s that sort of area.

Middle-class, respectable.

The sort of place where bad things only happen behind closed doors.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com