Third person POV 𖨆𖨆𖨆
The room smelled faintly of stale coffee and printer ink. Files and folders were stacked across the table, each one detailing the night of the murder.
Angelo stood at the whiteboard, marker in hand. "We've got a problem," he said, tapping the timeline of the suspects. "None of these timelines match, and we're missing footage from the cameras outside the mansion."
Eman leaned forward. "Missing footage?"
"Yeah," Angelo replied. He pointed at the screen showing the security feed. "The camera works the whole night… except for twelve crucial minutes. Right during the argument."
Ci-N frowned. "Twelve minutes? That's huge. That's basically the entire window for the murder."
"Exactly," Angelo said. "Someone planned this."
I leaned back, trying to process it. Three suspects. Three different stories. None of them lined up. And now someone had tampered with evidence.
"Let's check the victim's phone," Ci-N said, typing something on his computer. He scrolled through the messages, and I leaned over to see.
"There's a deleted message," he said. "Sent right before the murder."
I frowned. "Who sent it?"
"Yuri," Ci-N replied. "Says, 'We need to talk. Tonight.'"
Eman rubbed the back of his neck. "So he was messaging the victim right before everything happened."
"Exactly," I said, tapping my pen against the table. "That lines up… with the twelve-minute blackout. Whoever sent that message could've been inside during the missing footage."
Angelo narrowed his eyes. "We'll need to question him thoroughly. And make sure nothing else was deleted from the phone."
Ci-N nodded, jotting notes. "I'll check call logs and timestamps. Maybe there's more we missed."
Eman added, "I can pull more footage from neighboring cameras. Even if one camera cut out, the others might have captured movement."
"Good," Angelo said. "We need everything confirmed before confronting anyone. No assumptions."
I stared at the screen again, feeling the weight of the missing twelve minutes pressing on my chest. Whoever had been in that mansion… whatever had happened… it wasn't just an argument.
And now we had a real lead.
The screen flickered again, and I froze. Something moved just outside the mansion's driveway. A shadow, too quick to identify.
Angelo leaned closer. "Eman, freeze it. Ci-N, zoom in."
The three of us watched as the shadow disappeared. No one in the feed.
"Someone was out there," I said slowly.
"Exactly," Angelo said grimly. "And now we know it was one of them. The suspects."