Chapter 3 - the camera that should have been dead
The man in the gray raincoat stared at the camera for less than a second.
Then he pointed.
Vanessa followed his gaze.
The basement feed went black.
Lily nearly dropped the tablet.
She heard hurried footsteps below the kitchen floor.
She closed the security application and returned the tablet to the counter just as the study door opened.
Vanessa entered first.
Her face was calm, but her breathing was not.
“Where is the tablet?”
Claire pointed toward the counter.
Vanessa picked it up and checked the screen.
“What did you touch?” she asked Lily.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I was doing homework.”
Marlene appeared behind Vanessa. Ruth and Simone followed.
The four women surrounded the kitchen table.
Lily looked from one face to another.
Claire remained near the doorway.
She did not step forward.
She did not tell them to leave Lily alone.
Vanessa placed the tablet in front of Lily.
“Unlock it.”
“I don’t know the code.”
“You just opened the security system.”
“No, I didn’t.”
Marlene leaned over the table.
“Your father taught you to lie.”
“My dad doesn’t lie.”
The words escaped before Lily could stop them.
Marlene straightened.
“That man has lied to this family since the day he married your mother.”
Lily’s eyes burned, but she refused to cry.
“He’s still coming home.”
Claire finally spoke.
“Lily, go upstairs.”
Vanessa turned toward her.
“That won’t solve anything.”
“She’s ten.”
“She saw the basement.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know the camera activated.”
Marlene looked at Claire.
“We cannot leave her here when the drivers arrive.”
Lily’s fear deepened.
“Where am I going?”
No one answered immediately.
Then Marlene smiled.
The smile was worse than anger.
“We’re going to play a little game.”
“I don’t want to.”
“It isn’t your choice.”
Marlene took a plastic grocery bag from beneath the sink. She told Lily to put her pajamas, schoolbooks, and a coat inside it.
Lily looked at Claire.
“Mom?”
Claire stared at the floor.
“Do what Grandma says.”
“Where are you sending me?”
“Only outside for a while,” Marlene replied. “Until you learn not to interfere in adult matters.”
Rain struck the windows.
Lily could barely see the street through the water.
“You can’t make me stay outside.”
Marlene’s expression hardened.
“This is my daughter’s house.”
“It’s Dad’s house too.”
“Not for much longer.”
Lily’s breath caught.
Vanessa picked up the tablet and walked toward the hallway.
“We need to erase the backup before Elias checks it.”
“The backup isn’t here,” Lily said.
Everyone stopped.
She immediately realized her mistake.
Vanessa turned slowly.
“What did you say?”
Lily’s mind raced.
Elias had once explained that the house cameras copied important footage to a remote account. He had shown Lily how to trigger an emergency upload by pressing the shield symbol.
She had pressed it when she started recording.
Vanessa approached.
“Where is the backup?”
“I don’t know.”
Marlene seized the grocery bag and pushed it into Lily’s hands.
“Outside. Now.”
Claire stepped between them.
For the first time, Lily thought her mother might protect her.
Instead, Claire took Lily by the shoulders and guided her toward the front door.
“This is temporary,” Claire whispered.
“You’re letting them do this.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then tell me.”
“I can’t.”
“You mean you won’t.”
Claire flinched.
Lily had never spoken to her that way before.
Marlene opened the front door.
Wind drove rain into the foyer.
“Three hours,” Marlene said. “Maybe then she’ll tell us where the recording went.”
Lily stared into the darkness beyond the porch.
She remembered Elias’s message.
Keep your window light on.
He had told her he was coming home.
But Claire had deleted the message.
Marlene took Lily’s phone from her pocket and handed the empty grocery bag back to her.
“No calls.”
Then she closed the door.
Lily stood beneath the porch roof for several seconds, listening to the locks turn.
A moment later, the porch light went out.
She was alone.
At least, that was what the women inside believed.
Across the street, behind the rain-streaked window of a parked utility van, a man wearing headphones watched the live security upload.
He picked up his phone.
“Major Sloan,” he said, “the Grant house is active. The child has been removed from the residence.”
A woman answered immediately.
“Where is Colonel Grant?”
“His plane landed twenty minutes ago.”
“Contact him now.”
The man looked at the basement feed frozen on his monitor.
“There’s something else. We have visual confirmation of the missing equipment.”
“Who is inside?”
“Claire Grant, Marlene Vale, all three Vale sisters, and an unidentified male.”
Major Sloan was silent for a moment.
Then she said, “Do not approach until we know who that man is.”
Inside the house, Vanessa returned to the basement.
The man in the gray raincoat was gone.
On top of one black case, he had left a note.
May you like
Only four words were written across it.
Grant knows about Raven Six.
