Page 13 of When You're Forgotten

Mrs Hughes pressed her trembling hand to her chest.“It was Mr Penrose’s choice, not mine.I wish we’d had some cameras inside now...If there’s nothing else…?”

Finn glanced at Amelia, who shook her head.“No, thank you, Mrs Hughes,” Finn said.“We appreciate your help.”

With a slight bow, Mrs Hughes stepped back.“I’ll leave you to it, then.Good evening.”She slipped out, the door closing behind her, leaving the faint hush of electronics filling the space.

Finn hovered near the screens, scanning each camera angle.“Just exterior coverage,” he said quietly.“Nothing inside.”He turned to Amelia.“Strange, isn’t it?”

She folded her arms.“You mean the fact that they protect the grounds but not the interior?Maybe James was worried about trespassers, but not so worried about theft from within.”

“Or he had reasons not to have his own activities recorded,” Finn suggested.“He might’ve wanted privacy for… well, who knows what.Considering the staff were told to leave that night, it might be connected.”

Amelia leaned against a stack of boxes.“So you think he was up to something behind closed doors?”

Finn tapped his fingers on the corner of a monitor.“It’s possible.The entire scenario—the last-minute dismissal, no one else around, no cameras inside—it begs the question of what he was doing in here alone.Maybe a meeting with a secret associate.Or a transaction he didn’t want overheard.”He paused.“If he was stressed as his sister Catherine claimed, maybe James was engaging in something shady.”

Amelia’s gaze flicked to the screens.“Right.That could lead to a confrontation, which might have escalated.”

She moved to stand beside him, eyes tracing the camera displays.The front drive showed a patch of gravel and the distant gate illuminated by weak floodlights.The rear garden feed displayed a softly lit stone path and swaying silhouettes of hedges in the breeze.Two side-camera feeds took in partial angles of the manor’s flanks, but as Amelia pointed out, “I notice the entire eastern side is missing.Large chunk of ground there with no coverage.”

Finn frowned.“Yes.If the system’s meant to safeguard the perimeter, leaving an entire approach uncovered is odd.Why bother with cameras at all if you leave a blind spot?”

“It doesn’t cost much to have a camera feed like this.You’d think they’d install a complete setup,” Amelia said, rubbing her chin.“So if an intruder came from the east—”

“—the cameras wouldn’t see them.”Finn finished.“That might be how that prowler got close on the night James died.”

Amelia gave him a small nod.“In the initial report from the local cops, it was mentioned there was a shape on the lawn, captured by one of these cameras, right?”

Finn opened up his phone and read one of the notes he’d kept.“Yes,” he said.“It says, ‘Unidentified figure glimpsed on feed, approaching from the front but then moving out of frame.’Then it disappears.”He turned to the console, scanning for the playback controls.“Let’s see if we can load the footage from that night.”

After a minute of fiddling, he located a panel with labeled discs or memory cards.The date stamp read the night James died.Toggling a small screen, he found a black-and-white recording of the front lawn, time-stamped around 9:45 pm.He and Amelia bent closer, eyes locked on the fuzzy image.

At first, the lawn looked empty, just faint shapes of shrubs trembling in the wind.Then, around the corner of the screen, a shifting silhouette appeared.Grainy and dark, it edged along the grass in an unnatural crouch.

“That’s it,” Amelia whispered, tapping the screen gently.

Finn slowed the playback.The shape inched forward, almost on all fours.With the poor resolution, it was impossible to discern if it was human.The figure stopped near the boundary of the camera’s coverage, paused as though sniffing the air, and then slunk out of view to the east side.

His skin prickled.“It does look… animal-like,” he said slowly.

Amelia inhaled.“If it’s a person, that’s a bizarre way to approach.Maybe they were trying to remain inconspicuous.With poor lighting, it’s easy to mistake them for a dog or something.”

Finn clicked through additional frames, but the figure never reemerged.“So it’s gone to the east side.Where there’s no camera.”

A hush settled between them, the only sound the faint whir of the recorder.Amelia straightened.“If it is a person, it’s possibly an intruder who confronted James.It would explain why he ran to his panic room.Alone on the estate at night.I can’t imagine...”

Finn shut down the playback, slipping the memory card out.“We’ll hold onto this.But for now, there’s only one way to see if we can glean anything else.”

Amelia arched an eyebrow.“Which is…?”

He grabbed a flashlight from a nearby shelf, presumably used by the security staff.“We go outside, check that east lawn ourselves.”

She pursed her lips, giving a half-laugh.“It’s pitch-dark out there, and we might be rummaging through wet grass.Perfect plan.”

Finn shrugged, a wry grin on his face.“You’re the one who used to say I was never adventurous enough.”

They left the small security room, stepping into the corridor.The house felt even quieter now that night had fully settled in.Dim sconces lit the hallway with a weak glow.The shift from the mild warmth of the manor to the crisp Welsh night air struck them the moment they passed through a side door leading onto the veranda.

Outside, a gentle wind rustled the lawn and hedges, carrying a mild scent of damp earth.The estate’s floodlights offered a patchwork of light and shadow, leaving swaths of lawn in near-blackness.Finn clicked on the flashlight, its beam cutting a narrow path across the grass.

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