After the Cabin by Amy Cross

being completely unreasonable here.”
    “You helped me before,” I point out.
    “There was a loophole before. What you're asking now is for me to point-blank break the rules. It'd be illegal!”
    “But your company does run the cameras around the supermarket, right?”
    “Yes, but -”
    “One of them suddenly had a password placed on it tonight.”
    He turns to me, with the bank of flickering monitors silhouetting his concerned face. “No-one would bother doing that,” he tells me after a moment. “No-one could do that, apart from me.”
    “Someone did. If you don't believe me, check for yourself. I was watching the feed, and then suddenly someone put a password screen in the way.”
    Turning, he taps at the keyboard for a moment, finally bringing up the same password prompt that I saw from home. “Well that's interesting,” he mutters, trying again to access the camera but still having no luck. “It's not using our standard password system, either. It looks like someone accessed the camera from off-site.” Bringing up some more menus on his computer, he whispers a few curse words under his breath, and after a moment he turns to me. “I couldn't get you the archives from that camera now, not even if I wanted to. They're locked behind the same password. For all I can tell, they might even have been deleted.”
    “How could someone do that?” I ask.
    “I honestly don't know.” He frowns, scratching the back of his neck. “I mean, I guess it's possible, but you'd need to be pretty good with computers. I'm going to have to look into it, and then I guess I'll have to reboot that camera manually so I can get it back under control. You see, this is another reason why security around this place needs to be beefed up! I tell them all he time, but they just brush me off.”
    “If you find who did this,” I reply, grabbing the notebook from his desk and scribbling my phone number and email address in blue ink, “can you let me know?”
    “I can't just -”
    “Someone's life is at risk,” I tell him. “My best friend has vanished, and I don't know whether I can believe what I see anymore, and these cameras are the only way of verifying anything.” I pause for a moment, feeling as if I'm about to burst into tears but somehow managing to hold back. “I need to be able to double-check everything I think I see, so please, can you just try to find another loophole that allows you to share the footage I ask for?”
    He stares at me, and I swear I can see a hint of genuine kindness in his eyes. “No promises,” he says finally, “but I'll definitely see what I can do. After all, if someone's messing with my network, I want to know why.”
     
    ***
     
    “You're losing your mind,” I whisper to myself as I stand shivering on the dark street corner, watching the white-walled cafe opposite. “This isn't good, Anna. You're going crazy and...”
    My voice trails off.
    I've started talking to myself.
    That's not good, either.
    Then again, it seems to help when I need to organize my thoughts. I don't know why I came down to the cafe tonight, but it's not as if I can just go home and sit around doing nothing while Karen's still missing. I've called the police station five times today, but there are no updates on the investigation, at least nothing that Bryson is willing to share with me. I tried to tell him about the camera, but he clearly thought I was wasting his time. News reports are no more help, offering the same lack of information. I'm pretty sure I'd have been told by now if the mysterious Daniel had been located, and at the back of my mind I still know that it's not going to be the same Daniel from the cabin, but I need confirmation.
    I need to be certain that Daniel, Jennifer and the others are really dead. Until then, I won't be able to get rid of this fear.
    Making my way along the street, I head toward the side of the supermarket and locate the CCTV camera high up on the wall. I stop and stare directly