25 Checking the surveillance cameras

"Captain! You brought food! You are the best, Captain. Everyone wait a bit, let me take a picture." Lisa smacked Draco's hand away as she opened the takeaway bags and pulled out the carefully packaged food. She arranged them and took several pictures before waving at Draco to go ahead.

"My social media followers are going to be so jealous." She commented as she scrolled through her phone.

Ravi rolled his eyes as he settled into his seat and took out one of his case files. Lisa leaned over to him, rolling her eyes at him.

"What is it?" He asked after ignoring her for a minute.

She gestured to the food, "You see this. This is how you should treat your partner."

"We get the same salary, Lisa."

"Riva, you have a farm. We are not in the same boat.

Ravi nodded his head, "You have over 10,000 followers, your boat is really large."

Lisa rolled her eyes, "You are the worst." She rolled her ponytail into a loose bun as she took her food and sat on her booth, practically swallowing the food.

"Everyone is done eating and resting? Great. We would need all the strength that we can get. Here is the surveillance of the day that Mrs Karen won ten thousand dollars. Gather round, we are going to comb through it. Our next lead is in this computer. I believe it." Arlen said as he left his office and stood in front of the meeting spot.

Lisa, who was still breaking her bread to dip in the sauce, "…"

Draco who was sitting cross-legged on the table drinking his can of soda, "…"

Sarah, who was face timing with her daughter, paused and looked at Arlen, "…"

Tom had always been the slowest to eat on the team and was still carefully arranging the plates in front of him, "…"

Arlen coughed as his eyes swept through their astonished gaze to the gaze of the person who was snickering to himself in his booth and he raised both hands, "Okay. Ten more minutes."

It took more than ten minutes but soon the team gathered around the large projector.

It was not as fun as Ravi had imagined it would be and it was definitely not as fun as they showed on TV. They had to watch the laundry, fast-forwarding to the night of the gambling.

"The monitoring system is very clear. Mrs Karen arrived in the Garfield Laundry room with some of the regulars. They played poker, roulette, and blackjack. She won 10,000 dollars, she went to the control room, and the money was transferred into her account. She bought beer for some of her friends before leaving. Then she paused at the door for a few minutes before leaving to withdraw the money from the ATM machine outside the laundry room. Was the money stolen on her way home but she entered a taxi home? Captain, what is going on? Is she...not well?" Sarah asked, narrowing her light brown eyes at the screen.

The surveillance was dimmer than inside the gambling room but it was still clear. The old woman walked into the glass-covered ATM, withdrawing money and putting it into her bag.

"The bank had already said that the money was withdrawn all at once but I was thinking she was coerced or something." Draco was easily flared up and he gritted his teeth, thinking of all the hours that he had spent and the overtime that he had done, he was ready to go and confront Mrs. Karen for wasting the police's time and resources.

"Her face." Ravi muttered in a low voice. Sarah's sharp ears caught his words and she looked at him in confusion but Ravi did not explain.

Tom replayed the video from the beginning and the police watched as the old woman entered the gambling room, won her money, withdrew it, and left.

There was silence in the room.

Arlen cocked his head. He motioned the sergeant to adjust and sat down in front of the computer. He rewinded the surveillance back a few minutes as Mrs. Karen stood in front of the door of the laundry. After a few minutes, she made her way to the ATM.

"Captain, we…"

Arlen raised a hand to silence Draco, his bluer eyes were extremely focused on the image, he seemed to see something and he zoomed a little closer.

Lisa nudged Ravi, her eyes inquiring if the Captain had also gone crazy.

"She is listening to someone. You see the way she is facing her right and leaning forward." The door of the laundry was at the far right, then there was a small path before the stores that sell repair equipment, Arlen recalled. The woman was listening to someone who was either standing on the path or in the store.

Draco leaned in, "But who is the person and why is her face so blank? It was even blank when she was withdrawing the money. If the person is someone she knows, shouldn't she be excited?"

Lisa nodded her head, "Even if it is a robber, she should be scared at least, there is no expression of fright on her face. She is not even shaking, that is weird."

Her words confirmed Arlen's fear and he frowned, facing Tom, "Sergeant, you retrieved the surveillance of the stores surrounding the laundry. Did you also get the surveillance of the Jones repair shop?"

Draco rushed to get the USB that they had gathered but Sergent Tom shook his head, "No. The Jones are planning to sell their store so they have not used it in months."

"Captain. What is wrong?"

Arlen's face was uncharacteristically serious, "Do you know which criminals are more dangerous than other criminals?"

Draco, who had returned, hurriedly replied, "Ah! That is simple. Mutants."

"Bingo!"

Sarah placed her hand on her chest like she was not one of the said mutants and repeated, "Mutants."

Lisa was the youngest of the entire team and her imagination was extremely high. She looked at the surveillance in front of her, the blank expression on the woman's eyes, and formed an entire outline, "Could it be...the legendary...mind control?" She whispered with a theatrical air.

"That is impossible." Two voices replied at the same time.