Chapter 4 - the camera that disappeared before the storm)
By noon, Emma was released into Laura's temporary care.
David rode behind them in his own car.
He wasn't allowed to take Emma home.
He wasn't allowed to stay overnight at Laura's house until the assessment was completed.
He was permitted supervised visits.
The rules sounded reasonable when Karen explained them.
Living through them felt like punishment.
Emma stood on Laura's porch wrapped in a pink blanket and looked at him.
"You're coming inside?"
"Later, sweetheart."
"Why not now?"
David forced a smile.
"Aunt Laura is going to have a special sleepover with you."
Emma frowned.
"But I want Daddy."
"I know."
Her lower lip trembled.
David nearly walked across the yard and took her anyway.
Instead, he knelt.
"This is only for a little while."
"Did Grandma win?"
The question hit harder than anything Diana had said.
"No."
"She said if I told anybody, you'd go away."
David swallowed.
"I'm not going anywhere."
"You promise?"
"I promise."
Emma wrapped her arms around his neck.
David held her until Laura quietly touched his shoulder.
He drove home alone.
The backyard looked different in daylight.
The storm had passed.
The metal kennel stood against the fence.
The chain was gone because police had taken it.
Mud covered the place where Emma had sat.
David couldn't look at it for long.
He went inside and started checking the security system.
There were cameras over the front door, garage, driveway, side gate, and back patio.
He expected the footage to settle everything.
Instead, the backyard camera had stopped recording at 6:42 p.m.
Emma had said Diana put her outside sometime after dark.
David opened the system history.
Camera disconnected.
6:42 p.m.
Reconnected.
11:41 p.m.
The exact minute paramedics entered the yard.
David stared at the screen.
Diana knew the cameras.
She had helped him install them after Claire died.
He checked the side gate camera.
No footage.
Disconnected at 6:43.
Front door camera.
Still working.
He scrolled backward.
At 5:17 p.m., Diana arrived carrying an overnight bag.
At 5:46, David left for work.
At 6:31, a gray sedan stopped across the street.
A man wearing a baseball cap got out.
He walked toward the side of the house.
The camera could not see his face.
Seven minutes later he returned to the sedan.
At 6:42, the backyard camera disconnected.
David froze the image.
He zoomed in.
The man carried something small.
A black rectangular object.
Possibly a tool case.
David called Ruiz.
"I found someone."
"Where?"
"Security footage. A man came to my house before the backyard cameras went down."
"Save everything."
"I already am."
"Don't alter the files."
"I know."
"Send me a copy."
David did.
Then he kept watching.
At 8:05, Diana stepped onto the front porch.
She looked up and down the street.
Then returned inside.
At 9:12, the gray sedan drove past again.
At 10:58, David's truck appeared.
He had returned early because the storm had caused a power failure at the warehouse where he worked.
Diana had not expected him until midnight.
David watched himself step onto the porch.
Watched the front door open.
Watched his own expression change because the house had been strangely quiet.
The camera had captured Diana behind him.
For one second she looked toward the backyard.
Then she looked directly at the front door camera.
Not at David.
At the camera.
David replayed it.
Again.
Again.
She knew that camera was still operating.
Why would she leave it operating when she had disabled the others?
Because she wanted footage of David arriving.
David leaned closer to the screen.
At 11:04, he appeared again, running out the back door.
At 11:07, Diana stepped onto the front porch carrying her umbrella.
At 11:10, the first emergency vehicle arrived.
Everything could be arranged into a story.
David came home.
David ran outside.
Emma was found chained.
Diana claimed he had been unstable.
If Emma had been too frightened to tell anyone what happened, then the surviving footage would show David at the scene.
The missing footage would hide Diana.
His phone rang.
Ruiz.
"We checked the system logs."
"And?"
"The camera wasn't disconnected manually."
"What does that mean?"
"Someone accessed the system remotely."
David felt a chill.
"My mother doesn't know how to do that."
"Maybe not."
"The man in the sedan?"
"Maybe."
"You found him?"
"Not yet."
Ruiz paused.
"There's something else."
David waited.
"The guardianship petition includes a photograph of the kennel."
David looked through the kitchen window.
"So?"
"The photograph was taken yesterday morning."
David's skin prickled.
"Before the incident."
"Yes."
"What does the petition say about it?"
"Your mother claimed she believed the kennel represented a potential safety concern because you had previously threatened to use it to punish Emma."
David sat perfectly still.
"I never said that."
"I assumed you would say that."
"She photographed the kennel before chaining Emma beside it."
"That's what the timeline suggests."
David closed his eyes.
For the first time, Ruiz sounded convinced.
"Officer."
"Yes?"
"Check who took the photograph."
"We are."
"Because my mother doesn't know how to send an anonymous child services report, hack cameras, prepare legal filings, and manufacture evidence."
Ruiz remained silent.
David continued.
"Someone is helping her."
After the call ended, David noticed something beneath the kitchen table.
A small piece of white paper.
He picked it up.
It was a receipt.
Briar Lane Storage.
Unit 214.
Paid in cash.
The customer name printed at the top was Diana Mercer.
May you like
On the back, written by hand, were three words.
Bring Claire files.
