Chapter 378 They Have No Choice but to Accept
Elizabeth really knew her stuff. She said, "The surveillance footage looks clean, no signs of tampering. The backup videos in the surveillance room are untouched too. The problem's gotta be in those two minutes of missing footage. I need to check the hallway again."
Ryan and Percy had their own theories. "Alright."
The three of them headed back to the hallway. Elizabeth pulled a strand of Karma from her gemstone ring and aimed it at the surveillance cameras. Soon enough, she found a trace of residual evil energy.
"Yep, someone used evil energy to mess with the surveillance when they took Darlene and brought her back. That's why the magnetic field got disrupted, making those two minutes of footage vanish," Elizabeth explained.
Ryan, being part of a special department, knew that powerful diviners could pull off stuff like this. He asked, worried, "So, does this mean we can't find any evidence?"
They had no clue who did it, and all the evidence seemed wiped clean. How were they supposed to crack this case?
Elizabeth shook her head. "No, we can still find it. They couldn't have used evil energy on all the surveillance. If we check other cameras, we might find something."
Ryan nodded. "Makes sense. I'll get on it right away."
He quickly copied the surveillance footage from the neighborhood and nearby streets for the two days when the footage went missing.
Elizabeth pulled up the footage on the computer, opening multiple windows to play and browse. Ryan and Percy watched from behind, and soon their eyes started to hurt.
They exchanged a look. Could Elizabeth really spot anything with so many videos playing at once? If it were them, they'd have to check one by one. Multitasking like this seemed impossible.
Ten minutes later, Elizabeth left five windows open. "These five videos have issues. They've all been edited. The person who messed with Darlene was really careful. They used evil energy to make the footage in Darlene's building disappear. The other footage was probably checked later and edited to remove any trace of them."
Ryan and Percy were both blown away; she was insanely good. Elizabeth not only watched multiple windows at once but also found five problems. Her skills were so impressive they couldn't help but admire her.
Ryan quickly asked, "Can the edited footage be restored? I'll get a pro to try."
Elizabeth said, "No need, I can handle it."
Since she might be working with them more in the future, it was okay to show them some of her abilities.
Ryan and Percy were both stunned. "You can?"
Elizabeth nodded. "Yep."
Then Ryan and Percy watched as Elizabeth's hands flew over the laptop. She pulled up a window full of code, which they couldn't make heads or tails of. After a bit, the first edited footage was successfully restored.
It was footage of a corner in the neighborhood garden. At night, a man and Darlene showed up, walking towards the neighborhood entrance. The time matched the missing footage.
Seeing the video, Ryan and Percy were floored again. She restored it so fast. Her skills were better than the pros in their department! Ryan couldn't help but feel like they hit the jackpot.
Twenty minutes later, Elizabeth had restored the footage from the other four videos. She pointed to the screen and asked, "Notice anything weird about Darlene in these later clips?"
Percy noticed it too. "Her movements are stiff, and her face is pale as a ghost."
The later video was also at night, but the streetlights were bright, making Darlene's pale face stand out.
Ryan added, "Her eyes are vacant, no expression. And that guy is following her at a distance."
Elizabeth said, "From the footage, Darlene was already dead at this point, but she was being controlled by a spell. He brought her back without anyone noticing."
She told Ryan, "Check the surveillance from the neighborhood to Aevum City. They'll show up again, and that'll be enough evidence." Her hunch was right; the surveillance was key.
Ryan smiled with relief. "Alright, I'll get on it right away."
Indeed, asking Elizabeth for help was the right move. If it were just them, they wouldn't have found the missing footage or the edited surveillance outside.
The surveillance was retrieved, and the footage from the streets wasn't edited. At several checkpoints on the highway, the man was seen driving with Darlene in the passenger seat. Moreover, Darlene's state was noticeably different when going to Aevum City and returning to Clifftonshireburg.
On the way there, she was chatting and laughing with the man. On the way back, she sat in the passenger seat with vacant eyes. She didn't blink or speak, looking like a corpse.
Ryan said, "This guy is our target. We'll check his identity and nab him."
This surveillance could serve as evidence to arrest the suspect.
He added, "But just relying on this footage can't fully prove that he killed Darlene. Just looking off doesn't prove she was dead at that time or that he killed her."
Elizabeth said, "Where's Darlene's body? I need to see it."
Ryan and Percy now fully trusted her abilities and took her to the special department's morgue. The morgue had been specially treated, so the body wouldn't decay for several months.
Elizabeth walked over and examined it carefully. "She was indeed killed by having her Generational Blessings and life force drained."
She then turned Darlene's body over and pulled down her clothes. "There's a mark on her back from a spell." She added, "I can extract the spell's energy."
Ryan and Percy had worked with many diviners and solved many cases, but it was the first time they heard of someone being able to extract spell energy. They didn't know how else to describe Elizabeth other than incredibly powerful.
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