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By the time they put Ben to bed they had seen one third
of the tapes and found nothing unusual. Occasionally
a security guard crossed the room but that was all.
"This is going to take forever," said Debbie,
sipping a glass of beer.
Kath yawned. "I never thought watching TV could
be so tiring. They were in the kitchen, eating clam
sauce over very fine pasta that James had never tried
before. Debbie said it was call Angel Hair. With a liberal
sprinkling of parmesan it was delicious.
Debbie loved seafood. In the summer they would take
nets to the docks to hunt for blue crabs around the
pilings. The mating season was best because the creatures
were distracted and you got a 2-for-1 deal.
James had never seen live crabs that close, didn't
know how bad tempered they were. One had caught Deb's
finger, piercing through to the bone. For a moment he
was tempted to stamp on the thing but then he reflected
that he'd probably have been pretty angry too, if someone
had grabbed him during lovemaking and taken him home
in a bucket.
"Can I take some more?" Sue asked, timidly.
"Of course!" Debbie handed her the dish and
James noticed that she threw her a generous smile. That
was interesting.
"I guess we'll have to carry on with the tapes
tomorrow." He knew that the day would drag. "No
point going into the city."
"Can I wimp out? I have to spend at least some
time in class. I'm sorry." It was unfair to leave
them with boring work but Sue was getting seriously
behind.
"That's fine. We'll finish tomorrow." James
assured her.
"I can help," Debbie offered. "I don't
have any work tomorrow."
"There you go!" Kath too had sensed that
Debbie was becoming more comfortable with Sue. It made
the atmosphere much more agreeable. "I'm going
to head home soon. Would you like a ride to the station?"
"Oh." Sue seemed crestfallen. "Do I
have time for one more plate?"
Half an hour later James was fast asleep. Debbie checked
Ben and brushed her teeth and then climbed into bed.
On impulse she turned on the VCR to check ten more minutes
of tape.
The day had been good. Perhaps Sue could be trusted
after all, and she had warned Kath not to leave them
alone again. That was going too far. Though she was
bothered by the way they'd acquired the tapes it was
kind of fun to watch them. She was surprised that everyone
found it boring. Any moment a band of robbers was going
to appear on screen and steal the treasure in a cunning
crime that no one so far had solved. So ten minutes
turned into twenty, and then thirty.
Finally the clock in the kitchen gave a quiet chime.
Debbie reached for the remote and her thumb was almost
touching the button when suddenly she realized that
something was very wrong. It took a long time to work
out what. The light level in the museum was low but
she was certain there had been a statue, maybe two feet
high, standing against the far wall, and now it was
not there.
She rewound the tape and pressed 'play'. The statue
was still absent. She rewound it some more. There! The
statue was standing in place, just as she remembered.
She allowed the tape to run for a minute, fascinated.
How had she missed the robbery? She became impatient
and hit 'forward'. The picture was flecked with snow
as the tape sped on. She watched carefully.
All of a sudden the statue seemed to vanish but it was
hard to be sure.
Debbie rewound again just a few seconds, and watched
at normal speed. The time of day was printed in the
bottom corner of the picture. She made a mental note
of it. At precisely 11:11:11 pm it happened. The statue
vanished. She played it again, this time noticing that
many smaller things vanished at the same time.
"So that's it," she said quietly. "Someone
stopped the tape."
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