Chapter 7: The Missing Minutes
The manager, Celeste Rowan, remembered me immediately.
She had already preserved the parking-lot video after my first request.
I asked whether I could review the original with a police officer present.
She said the store would provide it through an appropriate request, but she could tell me something important.
“The woman came here two days after the incident,” Celeste said.
“She wanted to know whether we could delete a section.”
I asked which section.
“The period before you grabbed the boy.”
Celeste showed me a note she had made at the time.
Valerie claimed the footage included a private family matter that should not be available to strangers.
Celeste refused to change the file.
Then Valerie asked whether any footage had been copied to an outside service.
Celeste had not answered.
“I thought she was worried about the argument,” the manager said.
I explained that my water line had been damaged.
Celeste’s expression hardened.
“Do you think she did it?”
“I think she has a reason to be afraid of that video.”
I asked whether anyone had identified the SUV that nearly struck Noah.
Celeste said the vehicle entered from the rear driveway and left through the loading lane.
She could not read the plate from the angle she had reviewed.
She added that the store had another camera near the loading door, but its recordings were managed separately by the delivery contractor.
I thanked her and returned home with a question that no longer felt abstract.
Who had been driving the SUV, and why did Valerie care more about that driver than about Noah’s safety?
