Chapter 5 - Susan’s Camera
Margaret woke inside the dog cage.
By midnight, Susan’s camera had changed everything.
Police arrived first.
Nathan attempted to leave.
Susan stood in front of his truck long enough for Deputy Luis Ortega to block the driveway.
Nicole cried immediately.
“My mother is having an episode.”
Margaret sat wrapped in Susan’s blanket on a patio chair.
Her lip was bleeding.
Her cheek was swelling.
Her hands were bruised.
Officer Ortega crouched beside her.
“Mrs. Hayes, can you tell me what happened?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“My daughter and son-in-law drugged me, put me in that cage, assaulted me, and attempted to steal my property.”
Nicole screamed.
“That is not true!”
Ortega turned.
“Ma’am, please remain with Officer Kelly.”
Susan stepped forward.
“I recorded part of it.”
Nathan’s face changed.
Nicole stared at her.
Susan held up her phone.
“I also have three nights of exterior footage.”
Victor Danner was gone.
Margaret had not seen him since waking.
She told Ortega about him.
The officer wrote the name.
“Do you know where Mr. Danner went?”
“No.”
Nathan called from across the yard.
“There was nobody named Victor here.”
Margaret turned.
Nicole joined immediately.
“She’s confused.”
Susan laughed.
Everyone looked at her.
“Then apparently my camera is confused too.”
She showed Ortega the footage.
Victor at the front door.
Victor entering.
Victor’s car.
License plate visible.
Nathan closed his eyes.
Police separated everyone.
An ambulance took Margaret to Briarwood Regional Hospital.
Toxicology showed a sedative in her blood.
Not enough to kill her.
Enough to impair her.
The emergency physician documented bruising consistent with restraint.
A split lip.
A shoulder injury.
Mild hypothermia.
Margaret asked the nurse for paper.
The nurse brought a clipboard.
Margaret wrote every detail she remembered.
At 3:40 a.m., Detective Carla Mendes arrived.
“You should rest.”
“I’m sixty-eight, Detective. People keep telling me what I should do.”
Mendes smiled.
“Fair.”
Margaret told her everything.
The forged deed.
The trust.
Black Pine.
Victor.
The missing envelope.
The brass key.
The ledger.
Mendes stopped her.
“What key?”
Margaret’s hand moved toward her jeans.
Her pockets were empty.
She sat straighter.
“The key is gone.”
“Who had access to you?”
“Nicole. Nathan. Victor.”
Mendes wrote.
“Do you know what it opens?”
“No.”
“Did Harold leave a safe-deposit box?”
Margaret froze.
She had forgotten.
Not because she was confused.
Because Harold had closed their shared safe-deposit box two years before his death.
He told Margaret the bank was changing fees.
But what if he had opened another?
Mendes noticed her expression.
“What?”
“There might be a bank.”
At nine the next morning, Nicole was released pending investigation.
Nathan was not.
Police found prescription sedatives in his truck.
The bottle was issued to Nicole.
Her attorney claimed Nathan had taken them without permission.
Margaret was still in the hospital when Nicole called.
Margaret answered.
“Mom.”
Silence.
Then crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Margaret said nothing.
“I panicked.”
“You put me in a cage.”
“I didn’t mean for it to go that far.”
“You slapped me.”
“Nathan was angry.”
“You slapped me.”
Nicole sobbed.
“I was scared.”
Margaret looked out the hospital window.
Morning sunlight spread over the parking lot.
“You laughed.”
Nicole stopped crying.
Margaret’s voice remained calm.
“That is the part I keep remembering.”
“Mom…”
“You laughed.”
“I was overwhelmed.”
“You put your hands in my hair and laughed.”
Nicole’s breathing changed.
The performance disappeared.
“You don’t understand what’s at stake.”
“Money.”
“No.”
Margaret turned from the window.
“What?”
Nicole whispered.
“Victor isn’t trying to get rich.”
Margaret said nothing.
“He’s trying to stop someone else from finding the ledger.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You contacted him.”
“Through an attorney.”
“Daniel Mercer?”
Silence.
Margaret had her answer.
“What did Mercer tell you?”
Nicole whispered, “That Dad left instructions.”
“What instructions?”
“I never saw them.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because Victor was scared.”
Margaret almost laughed.
“Victor didn’t look scared.”
“He is.”
“Of whom?”
Nicole hesitated.
Then said, “Someone named Reed.”
Margaret remembered the photograph.
Harold Hayes.
Victor Danner.
Samuel Reed.
“Samuel Reed disappeared in 1989.”
“I know.”
“Then who?”
Nicole lowered her voice.
“His daughter.”
The line went dead.
Margaret stared at the phone.
Detective Mendes entered ten minutes later.
“We found something.”
“What?”
“Your neighbor’s camera caught another vehicle Tuesday night.”
Margaret’s stomach tightened.
Mendes showed her a still image.
A white sedan.
A woman exiting.
Tall.
Dark coat.
Long blond hair streaked with gray.
She met Nathan by the garage.
Nathan handed her a folder.
Mendes enlarged the woman’s face.
“Do you know her?”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
But she knew something else.
Nathan had lied to Victor.
He was not only working with him.
He had another buyer.
May you like
And Margaret suddenly wondered whether Nicole was the mastermind she appeared to be.
Or merely the most convenient person Nathan intended to blame.
