It wasn’t much warmer than outside, but it was an improvement, seeing as neither Josie nor Noah had their coats on. They followed Wilson down a set of gray steel steps to a concrete floor that she knew was below ground level. At the end of the building closest to the river was a door marked “Counting Room.” Along the left-hand wall Josie saw more doors marked “Restroom” and “Break Room.” Lining the wall to their right was a number of tables which held a bank of computers.
“I’m the duty operator for the night shift here,” Wilson said. “After your Chief called and talked to the plant manager, I went back and checked the tapes. I got a lot of video of all of you out by the control house tonight but nothing other than that. No one’s tried to come to the station in the last few days. Only regular workers. Though there’s never much activity in this area this time of year. Usually, everything’s froze up, including the river, but even with the winter drawdown, all this rain has been a problem.”
He sat down in his chair, the back of it creaking under his weight. He touched the mouse of the computer nearest his seat, bringing its screen to life. It showed several small gray boxes—video feed from various spots in and around the dam, including the gate they’d just driven through. Most of the cameras were surrounding the building—ensuring that no unauthorized personnel breached the perimeter of the hydroelectric station. A few cameras were positioned in the small parking area where they had come in. “I’ve been over these for the last two days, like your Chief asked, and like I said, there’s nothing unusual—not over here by the power station.”
Josie said, “Was there anything unusual out by the control house?”
Wilson clicked a few more times. The squares on the screen rearranged themselves and then one popped to the center of the screen, enlarged. Josie saw dirt, trees, and in the periphery, a chain-link fence, and she knew it was the one that surrounded the control house. The rest of the view was of the start of the path that cut through the trees on either side, mud flattened by foot traffic. Wilson clicked back to the early-morning hours. Monday. The daylight was just a hint of gray on the screen. The timestamp on the video read 4:49 a.m. Something flew into view, collapsing onto the path, and remaining there while the seconds ticked by. One, two, three, four.
“That’s her,” said Noah.
It was definitely a woman, dressed in dark clothes, with long wavy hair, but her face was turned away from them, in the direction of the river. She was on her knees, her head lolling and barely visible.
“Can you rewind that?” Josie asked.
Wilson clicked until the footage played again. The early light of morning crept onto the portion of the path that the control house camera did manage to capture. Then the woman flew into the frame, stumbling, and falling to her knees. She didn’t move.
More seconds ticked by. Then a gloved hand reached into the camera’s view and gripped her upper arm, dragging her out of the camera’s eye. Still, the camera offered no view of her front.
“Don’t know if that helps you,” Wilson said. “Even in December we get hikers, dog walkers—all kinds of people—out walking around. I’ve been saying we should try to fence that side in, but no one will hear of it. This one is kinda strange though. This lady here who fell don’t look like she’s in great shape.”
Josie said nothing.
“Is this all you’ve got?” asked Noah. “From that side of the dam?”
Wilson nodded, leaning back. His chair squeaked again. “Yep. Don’t tell you much, does it? That camera don’t show the full path but it’s really only there to see if people are messing with the control house, so that’s why they never move it. You get what you need?”
Noah said, “That’s the only camera on that side? There aren’t any along the stairs, the path, the bank, or the parking lot?”
Josie knew what he was getting at: whether or not there was footage of the other person, perhaps returning from the riverbank. Or footage of that person’s vehicle.
Wilson kinked a brow at him. “Son, did you not just hear what I said? This is all I got.”
Josie said, “Can we get a copy of that to take with us?”
“Sure thing,” said Wilson. “Give me a minute.”
While he queued up the footage and copied it to a flash drive, Josie asked, “Don’t any of these cameras alert you if someone shows up on them?”
Wilson shook his head. “On that side of the dam? Only if someone breaches the control house. Other than that, it’s not that kind of system. Like I said, that side of the river? There’d be alerts going off all damn day. We don’t have time for that. Same over here. We only get alerts if any of the entry points to the power station are tampered with.”
Noah said, “How long does your system keep the footage?”
“A week,” Wilson said, handing Josie the flash drive.
Josie said, “Thank you. Does someone monitor these cameras on a regular basis?”
Wilson’s chair squealed as he spun it around, gesturing to the space around him. “Does it look like we’ve got the staff to have someone on these cameras twenty-four hours a day?”
“What about the day shift?” Noah asked. “Business hours.”
Wilson shook his head. “I’m here till seven and no one’s monitoring while I’m here. Don’t think day shift does either, but look here, even if someone was monitoring and saw what you got there in your hands—that’s not an emergency by any stretch. You know how many hikers and kayakers and dog walkers fall down in the woods? Wouldn’t nobody in this plant go running for something as silly as that.”
Josie felt a quick flash of anger, thinking of the woman trapped in the rocks and then getting swept away by the raging river. But Wilson had no idea what Josie had witnessed in the water release chute. Plus, he was right. There was nothing particularly alarming about the video except that the woman seemed dazed. Even the gloved hand was not a red flag. It was December. In fact, Josie wished she hadn’t thrown her own gloves into the river.
“Tell you what,” Wilson conceded. “I’ll ask the daytime duty operator about it, okay? How’s that?”
“That’s great,” Josie said. “If you could also make us a list of all of the employees who worked in the last seventy-two hours, we’d appreciate it.”
He let out a heavy sigh and shook his head, as if she was taking things a step too far, but then he reached behind his computer and came up with a notepad and pen and began scribbling names.
Twelve