Chapter 3 - The Seventh Camera)
Samuel Price lived in a town called Gloucester, forty miles north of Boston.
Daniel found the address through an old corporate contact.
At eight the next morning, he drove there alone.
Ava wanted to come.
Daniel refused.
"You stay with Lily."
"You don't get to decide that."
"No. But somebody has to be with her when she wakes up."
Ava looked toward the stairs.
Daniel was right.
He kissed her forehead.
Then he left.
Samuel Price's house stood near the water behind a row of weathered fishing cottages.
Daniel expected a bitter former employee.
He found a seventy-four-year-old man trimming roses.
Samuel took one look at Daniel and sighed.
"I wondered how long it would take."
Daniel stopped at the gate.
"You know why I'm here?"
"Your face is on every news channel."
Samuel clipped another stem.
"I meant before yesterday."
Daniel frowned.
Samuel looked at him.
"I wondered how long before Margaret finally went too far with someone you loved."
Daniel opened the gate.
"I need the recording from the seventh camera."
Samuel's hand stopped.
Helen had been right.
Samuel knew.
"Come inside."
The house smelled of coffee and salt air.
Samuel led Daniel to a small office filled with old file boxes.
On the wall hung a photograph of Richard Sterling.
Daniel stared at it.
His father looked younger than Daniel remembered him.
Samuel noticed.
"He was a better man than your mother allowed him to be."
Daniel turned.
"Careful."
Samuel smiled sadly.
"Still defending her?"
"No."
"Good. Then maybe we can save some time."
Samuel sat.
"Your father installed the seventh camera because money was disappearing from the family foundation."
Daniel frowned.
"What does that have to do with the garden?"
"Nothing originally."
Samuel opened a drawer.
"But Margaret used the garden for conversations she didn't want recorded."
Daniel stared.
"My father recorded her?"
"He suspected she was moving charity money through shell vendors."
Daniel's disbelief showed.
Samuel lifted a hand.
"I said suspected."
"Did he prove it?"
"He died first."
Daniel's chest tightened.
His father had died after a sudden cardiac event during a business trip.
There had never been anything suspicious about it.
At least Daniel had never been told there was.
Samuel continued.
"After Richard died, your mother fired me."
"She said you stole from the company."
"Of course she did."
Samuel reached into the drawer.
He placed an old brass key on the desk.
Daniel looked at it.
"What is that?"
"Your father gave it to me three days before he died."
"For what?"
"A private storage box."
"Where?"
Samuel slid a piece of paper across the desk.
Daniel read an address in downtown Boston.
Samuel leaned back.
"The garden camera feeds into an independent recorder installed inside the old groundskeeping office."
Daniel frowned.
"That building was renovated."
"Not the basement."
Daniel stared.
"Does the system still work?"
"I don't know."
"You said you wondered how long it would take."
"Because Richard made me promise something."
"What?"
Samuel's expression became serious.
"If Margaret ever harmed one of his grandchildren, I was to tell you about the camera."
Daniel felt a chill.
"My father died before I had children."
"Yes."
"Then why would he say that?"
Samuel looked toward the photograph.
"Because he knew your mother."
Daniel picked up the key.
"Why didn't you contact me earlier?"
"I tried."
"When?"
"Your wedding."
Daniel stared.
Samuel continued.
"I wrote you a letter."
"I never received one."
"I know."
"How?"
"Because Margaret called me."
Daniel felt anger move through him like heat.
"What did she say?"
Samuel's voice dropped.
"She said if I contacted you again, she'd make sure my daughter lost her medical insurance."
Daniel looked at him.
"She could do that?"
"At the time my daughter worked for Sterling Hospitality."
Daniel sat down.
Samuel continued.
"Your mother has never needed to threaten people loudly, Daniel. That's why she's survived."
Daniel looked at the brass key.
"Can we retrieve yesterday's video?"
Samuel nodded.
"If the recorder still has power."
They drove to the Sterling estate separately.
The front gate guard recognized Daniel and opened the gate immediately.
Margaret was at corporate headquarters.
That gave them perhaps thirty minutes.
The old groundskeeping office stood behind the greenhouse.
They entered through a side door.
Samuel found a narrow staircase beneath stacked fertilizer bags.
The basement smelled damp.
At the far end stood a locked steel cabinet.
Samuel removed a small screwdriver from his coat and opened the external panel.
A green light blinked inside.
He smiled.
"Richard always bought expensive equipment."
Daniel stared at the recorder.
Samuel connected a laptop.
Files appeared.
Dates.
Times.
Thousands of hours.
Daniel found yesterday.
10:41 a.m.
He pressed play.
The image showed the garden.
Margaret entered the frame with Lily.
Daniel leaned closer.
There was no audio.
But the video was enough.
Margaret tied balloon strings together.
She pointed toward the muddy flower bed.
Two gardeners reluctantly lifted the balloon cluster.
Lily began struggling.
One gardener lowered the balloons.
Margaret stepped toward him.
Even without sound, the threat was obvious.
The balloons rose again.
Lily reached toward the mansion.
Daniel's hands began shaking.
Then he saw something else.
A woman stood near the hedge.
Watching.
Not a guest.
A staff member.
Daniel paused the recording.
"Who's that?"
Samuel leaned closer.
His face changed.
"That's impossible."
Daniel looked at him.
"You know her?"
Samuel slowly sat back.
"Her name is Rebecca Hale."
"So?"
Samuel looked at Daniel.
"She disappeared eleven years ago."
"When?"
May you like
Samuel's eyes remained fixed on the frozen image.
"Two days after your father died."
