Chapter 9 - The Camera Above the Pantry
The detective assigned to the case was named Jonah Pierce.
He was forty-something, calm, and careful with his words.
He arrived with a technician who removed the camera and two storage devices from the house.
Emily watched from the living room.
“How much can you recover?” she asked.
The technician shrugged. “Depends on how it was set up.”
“Grant erased things.”
“People erase badly all the time.”
That was the first encouraging sentence Emily had heard all morning.
At Sarah’s house, they waited.
Ellie went to school for half a day because she insisted.
“I want something normal,” she said.
Emily let her go only after the school counselor promised someone would stay close.
At 2:17 p.m., Detective Pierce called.
“We recovered local recordings from the pantry camera.”
Emily sat down.
Sarah muted the television.
“What did you find?”
“Several weeks of clips. Most are motion-triggered.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“Anything useful?”
“Yes.”
Pierce paused.
“We found footage of Grant accessing documents in your blue envelope. We also found him photographing your bank information.”
Emily pressed a hand to her mouth.
“And the money?”
“We’re tracing it.”
“Can you tell me anything else?”
Another pause.
“There’s a clip from four nights ago. Grant is in the kitchen with his mother.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“What are they saying?”
“Linda says, ‘Once the account is empty, she’ll have to stay.’ Grant says, ‘Not if Sarah keeps filling her head.’”
Sarah stood.
“He mentioned me?”
Pierce continued. “Then Linda says she can handle you.”
Sarah’s face changed.
Emily knew that look.
It was the look her sister had when fear turned into focus.
“What does that mean?” Sarah asked.
“We don’t know yet.”
The doorbell rang.
Sarah glanced toward the front window.
A delivery driver stood on the porch holding a padded envelope.
“No return address,” he said.
Sarah signed.
Inside was a cheap prepaid phone.
It rang the moment she turned it on.
Sarah and Emily stared at each other.
Sarah answered on speaker.
A distorted male voice said, “Tell Emily to stop talking to police.”
Then the line went dead.
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On the phone’s screen was one saved photo.
Ellie, leaving school that afternoon.
