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Shit.
It was a Wi-Fi camera.
Wi-Fi.
I was a major idiot. There was no internet connection here, so the camerawouldn’tbe able to download anything to my phone, would it?
I picked up the camera and got back in my car to take it home. I knew it was connected to the Wi-Fi there, so I made the sluggish trek through the tourist traffic along the promenade. I’d deliberately left when I had to avoid the mass of tourists coming into Fox Point for the May half-term holiday, but evidently, I’d found myself caught in it all the same.
I blamed the weather.
The beach wasn’t as fun if it was raining.
But no. It was hot, sunny, and perfect for anyone who wanted to shove their kids off to the side while they took selfies for their Instagram and attempted to make scenic videos for TikTok.
That was a slightly bitchy of me, but oh, well. It’s not like I said it out loud.
If I said it in my head, did I really say it at all?
I finally made it to the other end of the promenade and turned off, detouring down to Fox Point Secondary School, then taking a right there to drive back up the cliffs to the area where most of the residential estates were in town.
It didn’t take too long to get back to the house, and Dad was cutting back the hedges along the driveway when I pulled up. He turned off the hedge trimmer and looked over at me when I got out.
“Where’ve you been?”
“I ran to the B&B to check the camera,” I said, showing him the little box that was the camera. “Did you check those before you started hacking at them?”
He smiled. “Yes. No nests, don’t worry. I didn’t know you had a camera down there.”
“I took one down last night when you and Mum were going to bed,” I replied, getting my phone out once more to load the security app. “I was a bit weirded out by that Tierney bloke, so I thought I’d cover the front of the house.”
“You know that’s a Wi-Fi camera, don’t you?”
“Yes. I realised that just now when I tried to load the footage and it wouldn’t work.”
“It won’t work, Lottie. It needs to be connected to the cloud to even store anything.”
I blinked at Dad. “It’ll be on the camera, won’t it?”
He held his hands out for it, and I passed it over, including my phone for him to look at the app.
“No, sweetheart. It stores footage on the cloud, but it needs a connection for that. There’s nothing stored on it, look.” He turned my phone to show me. “If you’d said last night, I could have told you that.”
“I didn’t want to bother you,” I muttered, taking it back. “So, it was all a waste of time?”
“Until you get some internet there, yes. Then they’ll work, but you need the electrics working.”
The door to the neighbour’s house opened, and Stanley McGuire poked his head out. “I heard you talking about cameras. You got an issue with that one?”
Dad smiled at him. “No, Stan. Just my daughter apparently not knowing how Wi-Fi works.”
I rolled my eyes. “I thought it would store footage on the camera, but apparently it doesn’t.”
“Nah, not that one, darlin’. I told your grandpa on the phone to get a higher model, but he was happy with that one.” Stan stepped outside, his rotund belly preceding him slightly.
Not to be stereotypical, but Stan was the kind of guy you saw sitting at the pub every night after work to have two beers and a steak and kidney pie—grey hair cut close to his scalp, a beard that the tiniest length of stubble, a pot beer belly, and the kindest smile a person could wear.
“Problems with the electric at the B&B?” he asked me, leaning on the fence.
