You might not believe it, but May Randle’s testimony and the supplementary information she supplied, offered timely relief to investigators stymied by a seeming battery of contradictions. They wanted answers, not more questions, and May had – unwittingly – been able to provide such answers when no one else could.
Answers such as, why it was that Joshua Drake not only survived, but how he was able to walk away without a scratch; how the truck had ended up so badly damaged; and why the driver escaped without a mark on him.
Another reason May’s statement was so welcome – and why she was later thanked so profusely by those involved – was that her account solved another confounding mystery that had been kept out of the public domain.
Most cities are extensively riddled by CCTV. As well as those found in various department stores and boutiques, councils invariably site them all over the place: in car parks, on major junctions, along arterial streets and at strategic locations within shopping malls. When major incidents occur and clues need to be found, or assistance is required to discover the identity of witnesses or persons suspected of crime, it is invariably the CCTV logs that local authorities turn to.
Fortunately, Exeter had excellent surveillance coverage. Just as well, for the – Joshua Drake Miracle – as it came to be known, understandably received a great deal of exposure from local and national press networks, as well as the smorgasbord of social media outlets swamping the internet. It was only natural police would request the CCTV records of those cameras and devices serving the locality of the coffee shop that morning, as a single image could make all the difference in a complex enquiry.
And that was when another conundrum began to weave its web.
A subsequent diagnostic check confirmed the system was working perfectly, before, during and after the accident. Regardless, for some unknown reason, all of the cameras at that location did not show anything of the incident itself. The footage was completely blank. No migraine-inducing wavy lines; no blurred snowdrift nativity scenes; no frozen, ghosted images. For thirteen seconds, they simply refused to record.
In the end, it was these factors that went a long way to explaining why May Randle was viewed as a ray of light in an otherwise darkened cloud of confusion.
Though initially skeptical, investigators nevertheless took the time to painstakingly cross-reference her account with the established timeline and additional aspects reported by other witnesses. As they did so, a clearer picture began to emerge, one that revealed a shocking truth: that the details contained within May’s testimony – though seemingly farfetched – were completely reliable.
Surveillance footage of the city environs confirmed the route taken by Albert Finn in the minutes leading up to the accident. Tapes recorded in the immediate vicinity showed Joshua Drake toddling from the coffee shop, and then breaking into a flat-out run in his efforts to scare a small group of pigeons feeding by the curb. May Randle could also be seen standing next to those pigeons, fiddling in her bag as described, presumably with the items she had purchased from Marks and Spencer’s only moments before. More importantly, CCTV was also able to corroborate the approach of a baldheaded man wearing a black fleece jacket from a side street opposite May’s position. Stopping on the adjacent corner, that man acted exactly as May said he had, and lo-and-behold, the instant he stared at the cameras, everything went dark.
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Thirteen seconds later, that same man was seen striding back the way he had come. He paused and half turned – his manner what you would expect from someone about to talk to a companion walking beside him – before resuming his journey toward the library.
Bingo!
Needless to say, the authorities quickly cast a finer net, only to be rewarded for their efforts by an ever deepening mystery.
CCTV archives incorporating a wider arc of the city center were examined in more detail. Those archives revealed the times and means by which all the major players – May Randle, Samantha and Joshua Drake and Albert Finn – arrived, and subsequently left Exeter that day. The same could be said for all those witnesses electing to come forward and offer their assistance.
Even so, the man in black proved to be something of a phantom, because no matter how many discs were checked or how far back investigators delved, he could not be spotted arriving in the city or leaving. Nor were there any indicators as to his means of transport. So far as logs were concerned, it was as if he simply didn’t exist until about one minute before the accident, whereupon he was noted exiting the men’s public bathroom next to the library. Having done so, he strolled to the corner where the incident took place and, no sooner had Joshua made an appearance, than the cameras stopped working.
When they started again, that same man smiled, momentarily, before turning to barrel his way through a growing crowd of pedestrians drawn to the ensuing commotion. Forty-six seconds later, the reluctant hero arrived back outside the rest room. However, instead of ducking inside, he was observed staring into the monitor recording his actions affixed to the exterior wall of the library itself. He then did the same thing to a further CCTV post situated above the rear doors of the Exeter branch of Lloyds Bank, twenty yards further along the same road, but on the opposite side of the street.
The man continued to display this bizarre behavior as he removed something from within an inside pocket of his jacket, something that looked like a shiny gray baseball. Then, leaning back against the wall in a relaxed fashion, he commenced throwing that ball up and down in the air with one hand, all the time ensuring to visually scan passersby until a natural gap occurred in pedestrian traffic. Choosing his moment, he abruptly stood forward, held the orb aloft in his right hand, and flipped it over his shoulder and up onto the public convenience’s roof, where it bounced twice before rolling to a stop against the far parapet.
Incredibly, the man then turned to face each camera directly for a final time. On both occasions he pointed up toward the ball and kinked his head to one side. Job done, he reentered the restroom never to emerge.
It goes without saying that as soon as police recognized the goldmine they were sitting on, they rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area.
A thorough check of the facility established the walls, floors and ceiling were solid and sound. There were no hidden compartments, skylights or other windows that the mystery savior could have used. Neither was there another way in or out, except for the main door, which gave access to three stalls and two urinals.
Sure enough, when search teams checked the rooftop, they found the orb. Feather light and warm to the touch, it was made of a transparent resinlike material without seams or flaw, and contained a single silver colored metallic looking wafer, upon which a simple message had been inscribed in capital letters:
“AND SO IT BEGINS.”
The communication caused quite a stir, as by the time it was retrieved, other startling events had begun occurring around the globe. Most – but not all – were very public, covered like a rash by the media, and put the authorities in one place after another on notice that the world of 2035 was suddenly much larger than it used to be.