Page 96 of Mayhem and Minnie

I click on the first case, which is that of theft from a convenience store a few towns over from where I live. The case description notes that someone entered the convenience store at 10:00 p.m. and stole a week’s worth of food and some Christmas decorations. But the report highlighted that a certain brand of chocolate cookies was stolen in unusual quantities amounting to over five hundred dollars in losses. The cashier could not remember who it was that came inside to steal, and the CCTV cameras malfunctioned for a short period of time—exactly when the theft occurred.

The only footage is that of before and after the incident, and a girl fitting Minnie’s description is seen entering the store shortly before the cameras malfunctioned, and she exited sometime before they started working again. For that reason, the police are looking into her as a potential witness to whoever had robbed the place.

Hmm.

I click on the footage from the outside of the convenience store.

It’s night. It’s snowing heavily, and the ground in front of the convenience store is covered in ice. The time stamp shows the date as two and a half weeks ago. It’s 9:55 p.m. when Minnie appears in the frame. There are a few other people in the parking lot, but they seem to be departing the store.

I stop the video, my eyes growing wide with horror.

If when I found her I thought her mad for being so scantily dressed in that freezing weather, what she’s wearing in the video is much worse. Or, rather, I should say what she is not wearing. She has on a thin layer of what looks to be like a shift. She’s barefoot. Her hair is long, almost reaching her ankles. She must have cut half of it between then and when I found her.

I frown. This girl… She really knows how to get on someone’s nerves.

How the fuck does she go around in freezing temperatures wearing only a thin layer of material and no shoes?

She doesn’t seem cold, either. There’s nothing indicative of it in her body language. There’s no huddling or holding her arms close to her body. She appears perfectly fine.

She enters the store.

I quickly click on the second video—the one from inside. It captures her entering the store, but as she looks up, almost directly at the camera, the footage becomes unintelligible. Static appears on the screen, and it doesn’t stop until ten minutes later, when the video refreshes. The cashier is at his post, looking bewildered. There’s no trace of Minnie.

I narrow my eyes. This is…intriguing.

The next case happened a few days after, in another town. This was outside a small clothing shop. Three items were stolen from it. A pair of jeans, a shirt, and a pair of slides.

My cheek twitches.

The person fitting Minnie’s description was seen around the store at night, but once more, the cameras malfunctioned. This time, they didn’t catch her entering or exiting the store, so they only want to question her if she saw anything.

Since these are all small-town cases of petty theft, there isn’t much urgency. In fact, I’d be willing to bet they’re not even trying that hard to find her.

The third case is the most interesting, though.

Three men were assaulted in front of a movie theater. Once more, the same pattern emerges. The cameras outside the movie theater had malfunctioned exactly when the incident took place. More interestingly, though, none of the men could remember exactly what happened to them. They just recalled spotting a pretty young woman with dark hair and dark eyes and that was the last thing they remembered.

One of the men had both of his arms broken.

The second had multiple lesions, broken bones, and had to be put in neck braces.

The third had his head repeatedly banged against a hard surface, which resulted in intracranial pressure and required immediate surgery.

All were said to make a full recovery.

This time, the police seem more involved. It isn’t just stolen goods. Three burly men were put in the hospital.

I click on the video, and there are very few snippets of Minnie, always walking a distance away from the movie theater. But as I read more through the report, I find out that the CCTV inside the location had been malfunctioning for two weeks straight and always at night.

I tap my finger against my chin.

Cold facts are my specialty. They don’t lie. And in this case, I’m sure the person in the videos is Minnie. But more than that, I’m also sure that she’s the one who somehow got the cameras to malfunction. She did it here too, didn’t she? And multiple times too.

Opening my own camera feed, I write a quick code to scan for any static in the last two weeks.

Just as I expected, there are numerous instances throughout the day when the camera stops recording. It’s not just one isolated incident. It’s tens, if not hundreds.

I’ll be damned.

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