Chapter 3 - The Missing Eighteen Minutes
The deletion should have made things simple.
Instead, it made everything worse.
Daniel’s house had more cameras than he liked and fewer than Nora wanted. The public rooms, exterior doors, garages, pantry corridor, and gates were covered. Bedrooms were not.
At 7:12 p.m., the system showed Nora entering the kitchen.
At 7:13, the recording cut to black.
At 7:31, it came back.
At 7:34, Lily screamed.
Mara watched the timeline twice on the monitor in Daniel’s study.
“Who can delete footage?”
“Me. Nora. My security manager, Owen Reed.”
“And remote access?”
Daniel hesitated. “My office computer can access the entire system.”
Owen checked the network logs. His expression tightened.
“The deletion request came from inside this room.”
Daniel looked at his desk.
“I was downstairs.”
“So was I,” Nora said from the doorway.
An officer stood behind her. Her cheek was red from Daniel’s slap, but her posture was perfectly controlled now.
“My attorney is on his way. Until he arrives, I’m not answering anything else.”
Mara nodded. “That’s your right.”
Nora’s eyes shifted to Lily, who sat curled in an armchair with a blanket around her shoulders.
Daniel stepped between them.
“Don’t look at her.”
Nora gave him a strange little smile. “You always choose a villain when you’re scared.”
“No. Tonight my daughter chose one for me.”
The smile disappeared.
At the veterinary hospital, Max stabilized. A doctor told Daniel by phone that the dog had been exposed to a toxic substance and would remain under observation. The preliminary hospital test on the tea also showed a dangerous cardiac-acting compound.
Not an accident.
Not imagination.
Daniel ended the call with his hands shaking.
Mara waited until Lily was taken upstairs with a female officer before speaking.
“Your wife had motive?”
“I don’t know.”
“Money?”
“She has money.”
“How much do you have?”
Daniel almost laughed, but there was nothing funny in him. Mercer Industrial had been in his family for three generations. Between stock, property, and trusts, the answer was enough to make any murder theory sound possible.
“My daughter inherits most of my estate,” he said.
“And your wife?”
“If I die before Lily is an adult, Nora becomes one of the trustees.”
Mara’s eyes sharpened. “One of?”
“My chief financial officer, Gavin Ross, is the other.”
A knock sounded at the study door.
Owen entered holding a printed network report.
“I found the login that deleted the footage.”
Daniel took the page.
The username belonged to him.
The password had been changed three weeks earlier.
Only two people knew the new one: Daniel and Gavin.
May you like
Mara looked at him.
“Where is Gavin Ross tonight?”
