Chapter 12 - Walter's First Mistake
Peter Voss was arrested in a motel outside Cincinnati.
He asked for an attorney.
Then he asked whether Walter had been caught.
Ruiz said no.
Voss laughed.
"Then you've got bigger problems."
His lawyer advised silence.
Voss ignored him.
"Walter doesn't disappear without preparation."
"What preparation?"
No answer.
Ruiz offered a deal dependent on cooperation.
Voss eventually talked.
The slippers had been treated in Walter's garage on December 24.
Walter watched.
Voss wore protective equipment.
Walter asked repeatedly whether the burns would look like parental negligence.
Voss said the injury itself wouldn't establish that.
Walter smiled.
"The injury isn't the evidence. The reaction is."
That sentence mattered.
Walter expected Sarah to panic.
Maybe yell.
Maybe mishandle the slippers.
Maybe delay treatment.
Maybe throw away evidence.
Instead, Sarah reacted correctly.
She removed them with a towel.
She took Lucy immediately to the hospital.
She preserved the slippers.
Walter's plan had failed within seconds.
That was why he tried to take the box.
That was why he cleaned the house.
That was why he fled.
Voss described another component.
A hidden camera inside one of Walter's Christmas decorations.
Police returned to the Collins house.
Inside a wooden Santa figurine facing the gift area, they found a camera.
The memory card was missing.
But the device had been configured to upload footage automatically to a private cloud account.
Investigators recovered it.
The recording showed Walter preparing the room before the family arrived.
He positioned the slippers.
Adjusted the hidden camera.
Tested the angle.
Then he placed a small medication bottle beneath the couch.
Sarah recognized it immediately.
Lucy's missing bronchitis prescription.
Walter intended police or child welfare to find it after the injury.
The video continued.
Walter spoke to someone through an earpiece.
"Once she starts screaming, give it three minutes."
Sarah leaned closer.
Walter listened.
Then replied.
"No. Sarah won't call an ambulance immediately. She always thinks she can handle everything herself."
Mark looked away.
Walter had built his plan around assumptions about Sarah.
Not facts.
Assumptions.
And those assumptions had saved Lucy.
Because Sarah had reacted differently than he expected.
Then, near the end of the recording, something strange happened.
Walter looked directly toward the camera.
May you like
He said:
"If this goes wrong, Plan B starts tonight."
