19- Thirteen Seconds.

Mazurka, Ginny, and Skye had finished their lunches together in the breakroom, much to the envy of their fellow coworkers, while Skye's favorite computer known as VAS (Video Analysist System) finished running the provided surveillance footage through one of its many programs.

As Ginny departed the breakroom, making an effort to inform Mazurka that she was still trying to get him the file he had requested the previous day, he and Skye cleaned up and then returned to her lab to review the readied files. Setting up sequential files between two computer stations, they were about halfway through the first day's remaining footage when Harlowe arrived.

"Tell me you have something?" Harlowe asked as he moved in between the two computer stations.

"Nothing yet, but we haven't been at it very long. We're still working through the first night. How did it go at Caldwell?" Mazurka responded pausing his video and turning towards his partner.

"Bloody waste of time. The new vagrant hasn't been seen since yesterday and Willy Scarlet told me next to nothing. He basically just said that the guy was off but didn't elaborate. Thankfully the other guy there, Frank, piped in and said it was like and I quote," he said as he pulled out his notepad and read what he had written, "'It's like he was a child, as if a part of him had been erased.' Whatever the hell that means. Then Willy said the guy seemed to like him but didn't share anything with him. He apparently had no story, kept quiet and to himself, didn't say where he came from, and gave Willy a name so weird everyone went about calling him Towel instead."

"Tau," Mazurka said under his breath as he rubbed at his chin. He didn't want to jump to conclusions, but he was positive that he had heard Quayleigh say 'Tau' when Dylan had walked into the store, and wondered if he had just misheard, and she had actually said Towel instead. If that was the case, Dylan may actually be the vagrant. The very thought of Dylan Kirkwood living on the streets, regardless of what had happened with his fiancée, set him on edge. Something about that didn't quite add up, so he opted to keep the information to himself. He knew that he was going to speak to Quayleigh and could easily verify his suspicions, instead of sending Harlowe out on a witch hunt for a former friend that may still have nothing to do with these murders. "Tough break. Still think that guy has something to do with the murders?"

Harlowe shook his head. "I don't think he's our killer, but it can't just be a coincidence that he showed up right around the time this all started. According to Jathem, vagrants have specific places they go, people they associate with, and hardly ever change their patterns. New guys are rare in established communities like Caldwell, especially young ones. Jathem managed to get a description of the guy from his informant, the other fella that was there, Frank, but it describes a quarter of the population of Turnage. Apparently, he's about thirty, had dark hair and eyes, and a paler complexion. He's of average height and weight, but a bit more buff than you normally find on the street, and he was dressed in dark clothing, of which he had a single set, and otherwise, he had no outstanding features. No visible tattoos or scars, no piercings. Doesn't wear any necklaces, rings, bracelets or watches. And didn't carry a phone or any other personal item that anyone saw. They were also adamant that he wasn't a user, but I do suspect he's a schizophrenic, because they mentioned that he could see things others couldn't."

"Young, desperate, and in decent shape; has to have something wrong with him or he would have gotten sucked into one of the gangs easy enough," Mazurka replied turning back to his computer.

"Unless he didn't want to be a criminal," Skye added casually.

"When gangs are willing to offer up food, shelter, and protection in exchange for roughing people up and collecting pay offs, even the ones wanting to live a life on the straight and narrow, tend to sway once they get desperate enough," Harlowe responded with a heavy sigh, having seen a lot of young people get dragged into that lifestyle out of a need or foolish desire to survive out on their own.

"He might be hiding then. Maybe he was working with a gang, things went south, and he ended up at the camp trying to disappear," Skye replied with a reasonable assumption as any other.

"Might explain how he was able to afford the candy bars and mints," Mazurka said with a bit of a shrug.

"Well, we won't know until we track him down," Harlow grumbled as Skye paused her video and set up a third station for him to join in the review of the remaining footage. "For now, let's just hope we can get something worthwhile from this surveillance video."

It was about three hours later when Skye paused the footage she had been watching, "Yechi, Harlowe, come look at this. I found something you're going to want to see."

Skye waited for both of them to come closer, and then replayed the portion of the video she had been examining, which showed a frantic, portly man at the farthest point from the camera's location, running in to the area and ducking around the dumpster, where his body was eventually found.

"Could that be your victim?" she asked looking back at Harlowe.

"Yeah. Given his height compared to the dumpster and his extra weight, it's a good possibility."

"So, if that's the victim, who do you think that could be?" Skye paused the footage and pointed to a heavily shadowed figure standing just inside the edge of the frame.

"Where did he come from?" Mazurka questioned noting that the camera faced down the alley, which was the only way in or out of this particular dumpster area. Given the size of the location, however, most deliveries for the two stores serviced by the alley were brought in through the front doors, and that could explain why no one had found the body sooner.

"That's what's strange. This is an uncorrupted file; it hasn't been edited or cut. Whoever that is, just appears to step out of the shadows. Watch it again," she explained as she pushed back the footage by five seconds and played it. "See, nothing but shadow, and then he just steps forward. It's probably just a trick of the lighting and the older system, but I can't explain to you how it didn't capture him moving up the alley way, or why your victim didn't acknowledge him if he had been standing there the entire time. Altogether, there are thirteen seconds of footage, between when your victim first comes into frame to when this figure leaves. The camera didn't stop recording during that time."

"Wind that back again to the moment our victim ran to the dumpster," Mazurka instructed.

Pushing back the footage, she played it again, all thirteen seconds, uninterrupted.

"Oh, right there," she backed up the footage and played it again, "do you see it? Just before he turns to leave, there's a shadow on the ground near the dumpster."

Playing the footage again, slowing it down frame by frame, she paused it at the exact moment the shadow appeared.

"What is that?" Harlowe asked as he took a closer look at the screen.

"That's not a shadow," Skye replied as she moved the footage one second forward.

"It's not?" Harlow asked as they stared at the image while she bounced between the two frames several times.

"It can't be. Not only is it moving incredibly fast, but it's also not contoured to the environment, and there's no light source to create it in the first place."

"I want a still imagine of every frame of the entire thirteen seconds of that footage. Mazurka, you and I are going to keep reviewing the files we have while we wait for Skye to finish printing the pictures. Maybe whoever that was revisited the scene, or it may also be possible that our victim was still alive at this point, and someone else came along to finish him off. Thanks to the dumpster we can't be certain of anything."

"If he is dead, then this video basically tells us nothing. Even if that shadowed figure is our killer, we still don't know how he's doing it. From the moment he appeared, until he turned to leave it looks like he was just standing there, not doing anything. So how does that equate to someone dying with a look of terror on their face? And if it is magic, what the hell kind of spell doesn't require a ritual?"

"You know any practitioner's that might be willing to talk?" Harlowe asked with a suggestive tone.

"Yeah, I might know a couple," Mazurka replied in a quiet tone before returning to his footage, knowing full well who Harlowe was referring too.

As Skye worked to print out the images Harlowe had requested, he and Mazurka continued to review the files, seeing nothing but strays and the same two racoons visiting the dumpsters repeatedly over the course of that second night. The footage of the following night showing the racoons yet again, began to also show an increased number of strays and rats moving in and around area.

"Well, that makes it pretty obvious that Piang Lee didn't survive making it to those dumpsters," Harlowe concluded, having watched the rest of the footage from that second night that never showed any further movement from behind the dumpster.

"Yeah, the third night showed the start of the predation," Mazurka replied as Skye returned to the room carrying a file full of photos.

"Here you go fellas. Fresh from the printer. One for every frame as requested."

"Thanks Skye, you're the best," Harlowe complimented, which was an exceedingly rare event as he picked up the file and headed out of the room, "Mazurka, you coming?"