Ch. 4

   "Who normally goes through this room?" I turned back around glancing back over the tavern to see if someone had missed something. "No one really uses this back room except for the employees. It's mostly been used as a break room or for storage," he smiled showing yellowing teeth as his eyes stained at the barrels stacked on each other.

    "Lets head back to the front. I want to check the security feeds to see who has been in and out of this room." Already making my way to the front I could see him shift uncomfortably out of the corner of my eye. "What's the matter," asking as I continue to widely step down the hall.

    "It's just…" he paused in his response, "It's just so sad that five kids have already been murdered." He pretended to shed a fake tear and whip it away, "Those parents must have been so sad."

    My mind processed what he had said. "Can you say that again?"

    "Say what? That the parents must have been so sad?"

    "No before that."

    "That there were so many murdered kids," He raised an eyebrow wandering about my questions.

"Never mind. We are almost on the computer anyway." There was something off. There were only four children reported to the public to have gone missing and the genders that were reported remained consistent until now. The little girl only happened a few days ago. Something is just not adding up. 

The main computer monitor was shut down when we returned to the room. When the screen turned back on a lock was asking for the password to open completely. So I moved aside to allow the lumbering man to take a seat in the creaky chair. As he typed I asked a question that would determine my suspicion, "It's a shame about that little girl. Her family has been in the office for the last few days. What was her name again?" I pretended to struggle remembering.

"It was something that started with an 's'… Susie?" The man continued to type the rest of the passwords in and pulled up the camera feeds to the room. "Who else has access to the camera's history?" No longer watching the screen I stared at the man.

"Just me. The other people who work here don't have the password to the cameras. That is only given to the night guard."

"Don't you mean guards?"

"Nope, I'm the only one." The cameras rotated through the different viewpoints. Most of the camera feed was DnD players going through their routines. In between the shifts of people coming in and out of the room only one person was working behind the bar. 

"How many jobs do you work in this franchise?" I ask as there were multiple different camera feeds of the purple guy working other than the night shift. "I normally spend my entire day here. Most of the time I work security in the mornings and night, watching over the bar, surve cake, taking out trash…" as he droned on with what he did on a daily basis. I watch the same camera by the bar trying to see what time the children went missing. 

The digital cloak was speeding through the minutes and hours. Luckily staring at a monitor in my office gave me the skills needed to spot the details such as a 15 min gap in the recording around the time that the kids were eating cake. I reached over the guy's shoulder pausing the video feed. I could feel the tension from this man stiffen.

In the room stood only one guy in a security guard uniform leaning against the counter cleaning of the bar. A frozen grin stained his face looking down as he worked. As the screen slowly rewound, the pupils of the security guard grew ever so smaller. He watched as the camera's date time skipped the minutes once again being paused by the exact second before the clock jumped forwards. The door underneath the camera showed movement for opening with a blurred frame. A purple security cap shown on the bottom of the screen or at least was able to make out the shape of one. 

Wheels from the chair that the man was sitting in jetted back as his body turned towards the hallway in attemped to get away. Crack, the side of the chair swung into my legs temporarily stopping me from grabbing his clothing. "HEY!" I called trying to push the chair out from underneath my feet. 

"There's no point in running away!" I yelled out fully knowing that my words would not stop him. They were more there to subside my anger. This guy knows this place better than me plus there are still too many hiding spots. My mind raced as I tried to run after the surprisingly speedy runner. I needed backup and fast. Reaching for where my radio usually hangs to find out that my lazy butt left it in the car. Would back up even get here in time? One thing was for shure, this man needs to be stopped.