Page 21 of Sachie's Hero

Johnny enlarged the image from the front camera to fill the entire screen. He squinted at the monitor. “I don’t see anything scratched into the side panel. Is it on the other side?”

“Yes,” Teller said. “On the passenger side.”

“Can you rewind it to display the past few hours?” Sachie asked. “Maybe we can see who was hanging around long enough to scratch words into the paint.”

“I can try,” Johnny said, frowning in concentration as he used the mouse to move the cursor over several tabs, not finding what he was looking for. Finally, he hovered the cursor over the outside image itself, and a sliding bar appeared. “How far back do you want to take it?”

“Start when we got here, about three hours ago,” Teller said.

Johnny slid the bar to the left, backing the time up to three hours before, and then hit the play button. The video moved forward at normal speed.

“Can you fast-forward?” Sachie asked. “At a pace we can still see what’s happening?”

“I can try,” Johnny fiddled with the different options, finally finding one that would play the video at whatever speed they chose. After several tries, they got the speed up where they could see vehiclescoming and going and people getting out of parked cars and trucks to either enter the store or walk down the street toward the fire. An hour of the video sped by in three minutes, and nothing jumped out at them. No one moved toward the SUV during that time. Several vehicles pulled out of the parking lot on that end, but none slowed long enough for someone to jump out, scratch words into the paint and get back in without capturing their attention.

“Please, keep going,” Teller urged the kid.

The bell over the door jingled, drawing Johnny’s attention. “I have to help customers.”

“Do you mind if we keep watching?” Sachie asked.

The young man shrugged. “I don’t. My manager might.” He slipped the mouse across the counter toward Sachie. “I’ll be right back.” He left to help a customer find a replacement key fob for his truck.

Sachie took control of the mouse and started the video moving forward again at a swift clip. Another thirty minutes passed, and still nothing.

Johnny rang up the customer’s purchase, thanked him and waited until he’d left the store before returning to Sachie and Teller. “Anything?”

“Not yet,” Sachie said.

At that point, a delivery truck pulled in front of the store and stopped, blocking the camera’s view of the rest of the parking lot.

Several minutes passed as the driver got out, opened the rear doors of the truck and climbed into the back. He stacked several boxes onto a dolly, rolled the dolly to a hydraulic lift and lowered it to the ground. Then he wheeled the boxes into the store.

“Is it normal to receive shipments through the front of the store at that time of day?” Teller asked.

Johnny’s brow twisted. “The time’s about right, but they usually deliver through the rear door. I remember telling the guy he should’ve taken the boxes through the back door. He said someone had blocked the back alley. He couldn’t take his truck through.”

“Can you bring up the back alley camera for that time?” Sachie asked.

“Sure,” Johnny said and took control of the mouse. Moments later, they had a view of the rear of the store. Nothing seemed to be blocking the back of the store. “But that alley serves more than just this store. Someone could’ve parked at the end.”

“Do any of the other stores that use that alley have security systems?” Teller asked.

Johnny snorted. “I doubt it. One is a laundry service. The other sells fancy bird feeders and seed.”

“Let’s go back to the front camera,” Sachie said.

Johnny filled the monitor with the front camera’svideo, and they played it all the way to the current time, finding nothing more of interest.

Teller shook his head. “Whoever did it must have known there was a camera on the store and did his damage while the delivery truck was here.” He held out his hand to Johnny. “Thank you for letting us look through the video. We had to try.”

“I’m sorry you weren’t able to find the guy, and I’m sorry your vehicle was damaged.” Johnny shook Teller’s hand and let go. “Do you want me to bring it to the manager's attention?” Maybe the store has liability insurance that would cover it.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Teller said. “My insurance will cover it.”

“I’ll look through more of the footage,” Johnny offered. “If I see anything that sticks out, I could let you know.”

Teller dug a card out of his wallet and handed it to the young clerk. “Thanks, Johnny. You’ve been a big help.”

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