Chapter 11 - The Camera Blind Spot
Jack returned upstairs with the laptop under his arm.
Margaret was back in the foyer.
She had removed the gray jacket.
Now she wore only the cream blouse underneath, smooth and elegant, as if she had spent the last five minutes arranging flowers.
“Where were you?” Jack asked.
“In the powder room.”
Dana turned the laptop around.
The paused image showed Margaret leaving the basement corridor.
No one spoke.
Margaret looked at the image and sighed.
“All right.”
Claire stared at her. “All right?”
“The equipment was installed for security.”
“In my bedroom?”
“You were having marital problems.”
Ethan looked at his mother. “You told me those cameras were inactive.”
Margaret’s eyes flicked toward him.
It was the first time Jack saw fear pass between them.
Not mother protecting son.
Two people realizing they did not know what the other had done.
Charles laughed once, a broken sound.
“You watched me.”
Margaret turned. “I protected you.”
“You recorded me.”
“You fell. You forgot medication. You signed things without reading.”
“And when I objected, you told everyone I couldn’t remember.”
Margaret’s face hardened. “Because sometimes you couldn’t.”
Jack stepped in before the argument became something else.
“Where is the missing phone?”
Margaret smiled faintly. “What phone?”
Claire suddenly looked toward the grand staircase.
“The blind spot.”
Jack followed her gaze.
“What?”
“The hall cameras cover every entrance to the study except one.”
She pointed toward a narrow gallery above the foyer.
“The old linen passage. It connects the west bedrooms to the library.”
Dana checked the floor plan on her tablet.
“She’s right.”
Ethan said, “That passage was closed before I was born.”
Charles shook his head.
“No. Your grandfather used it.”
Jack and Claire climbed the stairs together.
Behind a tapestry in the west gallery, they found a narrow door.
Unlocked.
The passage beyond smelled like cedar and old plaster.
Halfway through, Claire stopped.
On the floor lay a black phone with a shattered screen.
Jack crouched.
Beside it was something else.
A small silver necklace.
Claire picked it up.
May you like
Her face drained of color.
“I gave this to Rebecca.”
