Chapter 4 - Three Days Before the Crash)
Nathan did not believe the bank clerk at first.
Not because Rachel sounded dishonest.
Because accepting what she was saying meant rewriting the last eight months of his life.
"Amelia closed the box?"
"I don't know," Rachel said. "The clerk only said it was closed three days before the accident."
They stood in Nathan's study with the door locked.
Elara slept upstairs with Marjorie outside the nursery.
Nathan held the brass key.
"Where did you get this?"
Rachel told him.
Lauren.
The crib.
The hidden compartment.
By the time she finished, Nathan looked older.
"Why didn't you tell me immediately?"
"Because Victoria appeared outside the nursery thirty seconds after you walked in."
Nathan stared at her.
"You think she's listening to us."
"I think someone is."
Nathan walked to the study door and examined the frame.
Then the smoke detector.
Then the lamps.
Rachel watched him.
"You don't need to tear the room apart."
"I built hotels for twenty years. I know how small microphones can be."
They found nothing.
Nathan called the bank.
As Amelia's surviving spouse and executor, he had authority to request estate records.
The answer arrived that afternoon.
Safe deposit box 418 had been closed by Amelia Kensington at 4:16 p.m. on November 6.
Amelia died November 9.
The bank record included a signature.
Nathan stared at the page.
"That's not hers."
Rachel leaned closer.
"You can tell?"
"I watched Amelia sign her name for eleven years."
The signature looked elegant.
Too elegant.
Nathan opened a desk drawer and pulled out an old anniversary card.
The difference was subtle.
Amelia's real signature angled upward.
The bank signature was almost perfectly horizontal.
Nathan took photographs.
Then he called the bank's legal department.
They promised an internal review.
Victoria entered the study twenty minutes later.
Nathan had hidden the documents.
"Are we having dinner?"
"Not tonight."
Victoria looked at Rachel.
"You've been monopolizing him."
Nathan's voice turned cold.
"Leave."
Victoria blinked.
"Nathan."
"I said leave."
She went still.
Then she smiled faintly.
"You've always been easy to influence when you're afraid."
Nathan stepped toward her.
"Get out of my study."
Victoria left.
Rachel heard the door close.
Nathan whispered, "She knows."
"About the key?"
"Maybe not."
"Then about what?"
He looked toward the door.
"That I'm not trusting her anymore."
The lab report from the amber bottle arrived the next morning.
It contained a sedating antihistamine.
Not normally dangerous in small prescribed amounts.
But Elara had not been prescribed it.
Nathan read the report twice.
Then he sat down.
Rachel watched anger struggle with disbelief across his face.
"Why would Victoria drug a baby?"
Rachel thought of the camera gaps.
"To make her easier to control."
Nathan looked sick.
He called his attorney.
By noon, arrangements were underway to restrict Victoria's access to the estate.
But Victoria did not wait.
At 12:37, a sheriff's deputy arrived.
Rachel saw the patrol vehicle through the nursery window.
Nathan went downstairs.
Ten minutes later he returned with an expression Rachel did not understand.
"What happened?"
He closed the door behind him.
"Victoria filed a complaint."
"Against who?"
"You."
Rachel stared at him.
"For what?"
"Child endangerment."
The room seemed to tilt.
Nathan handed her a copy.
Victoria claimed she had witnessed Rachel handling Elara aggressively on several occasions.
She claimed the bruise on Elara's arm appeared after Rachel had been alone with her.
She claimed Rachel administered unauthorized medication.
Rachel nearly laughed.
"She gave Elara that bottle."
"I know."
"Does the deputy?"
"I told him."
Rachel looked at the paper.
"This is why the camera gaps matter."
Nathan nodded.
"Except the security system has just been wiped."
Rachel looked up sharply.
"Everything?"
"Thirty days of footage."
"Who has administrator access?"
Nathan's expression darkened.
"Me, Victoria, and the security contractor."
Rachel picked up her phone.
"Then we call the contractor."
They did.
The contractor's response made things worse.
The deletion had been executed remotely.
Using Nathan's credentials.
Nathan stared at the technician on speakerphone.
"I didn't delete anything."
"Then someone used your login."
"Can you recover it?"
"We'll try."
Rachel suddenly remembered something.
The small camera above the estate's rear entrance had failed the previous month.
The contractor had installed a temporary backup drive while replacing it.
"Where is the old backup equipment?"
Nathan looked at her.
"In storage."
They ran downstairs.
The estate's equipment storage room was in the basement.
Nathan unlocked it.
Shelves were filled with routers, cables, old control panels, and boxes.
Rachel searched labels.
Nathan searched serial numbers.
Twenty minutes later, Rachel found a small black network recorder.
"Is this it?"
Nathan turned.
Then the lights went out.
The basement became completely dark.
Rachel heard the storage-room door slam.
Nathan grabbed her arm.
"Don't move."
A metallic click came from outside.
The door had been locked.
Rachel reached for her phone.
May you like
No signal.
Then they smelled smoke.
