Chapter 5 - Someone Had Been Inside

Grant checked every door himself.

Nothing was forced.

The alarm log showed no breach.

That meant whoever entered had a code.

"Who knows it?" Renee asked over speakerphone.

"Family. House manager. Security chief. Victor used to."

"Used to?"

Grant stared at the keypad. "I changed it after Caroline died."

Leah leaned against the island, pale. "Maybe someone watched us type it."

Tyler said nothing.

Grant noticed.

"What?"

Tyler rubbed his thumb against his palm. "Uncle Victor knows the new code."

The room changed.

"How?"

"I gave it to him."

Grant's anger rose fast, but he forced it down. "When?"

"A month ago. He said he needed to leave a birthday gift for me while you were at work."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you'd say no to anything involving him."

Grant almost answered sharply.

Then he saw the shame already working on Tyler's face.

"Okay," he said. "We fix what we can fix. That's all."

Tyler looked surprised.

Grant changed the code, disabled old key fobs, and called Malik Rhodes, the head of residential security.

Malik arrived with two technicians and a hard truth.

"Four interior cameras went offline for exactly eleven minutes at 2:14 p.m.," he said.

"Power issue?" Grant asked.

"No. Manual override."

"From where?"

Malik pointed toward the house network cabinet.

"Inside the residence."

Leah whispered, "So he was already here before we got home."

Tyler looked toward the dark hallway.

That night nobody slept well.

Grant placed a chair outside Tyler's room, not because he thought Victor would come back, but because he no longer trusted the house to stay quiet.

At 1:37 a.m., Tyler opened his door.

"Dad?"

Grant looked up from his laptop.

"Yeah?"

Tyler's face was smaller in the dim light.

"If Uncle Victor did something to Mom..."

Grant waited.

"...then I helped him get into our house."

Grant stood. "You didn't know."

Tyler shook his head. "That's not all."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a second phone.

"He gave me this two months ago. He said not to let you see it."

Grant stared.

The phone lit up in Tyler's hand.

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A new message appeared from VICTOR.

Tomorrow. Noon. Bring Leah to the old Mercer house. Come alone, or your father learns what you did the night your mother died.