Chapter 205 Restoring the Surveillance Video
William's vibe was straight-up intense. Since he spoke, Elijah had no choice but to say, "Yes, Mr. Fisher."
Elijah headed back to the surveillance room, double-checking everything like a man on a mission before grabbing the USB drive. A few minutes later, Elijah was back at the store.
"Mr. Fisher, here's the footage from that time," Elijah said, handing over the USB drive to William. William's icy demeanor had Elijah too freaked out to even breathe. Grace had said it was just a small favor, but now William was involved. This was getting serious.
William's voice was cold as ice, "Play it."
"Yes, sir." Elijah plugged the USB into the computer and hit play. Sure enough, the footage didn't show Margaret and Grace.
"Maybe they were in a blind spot or something," Elijah said nervously, glancing at William.
"That's impossible," Margaret shot back, her voice just as cold. She remembered clearly that she and Grace were near the entrance, definitely in the camera's range. The only explanation? The footage had been messed with.
"Play it again," Margaret demanded, eyes glued to the screen.
"Ms. Scott, we just watched it. It didn't capture them. Why waste time?" Elijah tried to reason.
"Play it again!" Margaret's icy glare made Elijah's heart skip a beat. He did as she said and hit replay. This time, Margaret spotted the issue.
"This video’s been edited," she said, pointing at the screen.
"No way," Grace's face went pale, and she quickly said, "Margaret, stop making stuff up."
"Why not?" Margaret smirked, replaying the video. "Look, there's a jump here. About two minutes are missing. And during that time, you were blocking me."
Even though Elijah had tried to cover his tracks, Margaret, a world-renowned hacker known as Ada, saw right through it. Elijah's face turned pale, and he quickly denied it. "No, I was in the surveillance room the whole time. No one tampered with the footage."
"What if you did it yourself?" Margaret sneered. Elijah's guilty look said it all.
"Stop talking nonsense!" Elijah wiped the sweat off his forehead.
"We'll see who's talking nonsense," Margaret said, sitting down in front of the computer, staring at the screen.
Lucy started to get nervous. She had planned to frame Margaret and make her look bad, but things were going off the rails.
Lucy walked up to Margaret, looking down at her, and demanded, "Margaret, what are you trying to do?"
"Of course, I'm bringing back the deleted footage," Margaret said, looking up with a smirk.
Lucy and Grace exchanged glances, their faces showing a hint of surprise.
'No way! Elijah's a computer whiz. There's no way she can bring back what he deleted! Margaret's just bluffing,' Lucy thought, feeling a bit relieved. She glared at Margaret. "Margaret, stop wasting time. Just apologize to Grace already! Do you really think you can stall and get out of this by acting all mysterious?"
"Whether I'm faking it or not, Ms. Clark, you'll find out soon enough," Margaret shot back, looking at Lucy like she was a total idiot.
Ignoring Lucy, Margaret's fingers flew over the keyboard, typing out lines of code with confidence and ease. The complex codes flashing on the screen were enough to make anyone's head spin.
Five minutes later, Margaret hit the Enter key and said calmly, "Done!"
To everyone's shock, Margaret replayed the footage. This time, the two minutes Elijah had deleted were back. The screen showed Margaret and Grace.
Margaret was heading towards the entrance when Grace suddenly rushed up and blocked her way. Even though there was no sound, their expressions and actions made it clear that Grace was provoking Margaret and stopping her from leaving. Margaret looked a bit annoyed and gently pushed Grace, taking advantage of Grace's momentary confusion to quickly walk out of the boutique.
At that time, Grace's dress was still perfectly fine.
"No, this can't be happening!" Grace's face went pale as she saw the restored footage, and she shouted in disbelief.
She looked at Elijah, panic and confusion written all over her face.
Cold sweat broke out on Elijah's forehead. He had done everything perfectly, so how could Margaret restore the footage in just five minutes? Plus, he couldn't even understand the codes Margaret had typed!
"Alright. Everyone can see what really happened," Margaret paused the video, pointing at the screen, and said calmly, "When I walked out of the boutique, Grace's dress was still intact, so it couldn't have been me who tore it!"
Everyone nodded.
"I didn't expect the truth to be like this."
"So, Grace really framed Margaret?"
"Looks like we all wronged Margaret."
Facing the crowd's accusations, Grace's face looked awful. And Lucy's face was even worse. Margaret had easily turned the tables again! It was supposed to be a perfect plan.
Seeing the priceless expressions on Grace and Lucy's faces, Margaret coldly smiled. "Now that the truth is out, it's clear that Grace tore her own dress and tried to frame me."
She paused, her sharp gaze locking onto Grace, and said coldly, "As we agreed earlier, Grace, shouldn't you kneel and apologize to me now?"
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