Chapter 4 - The Recording
"Who has administrator access?" Ethan asked.
Sloane's expression didn't change. "You do. I do. Our security manager."
"The alert says somebody is deleting video right now."
"Then tell your security manager to stop."
Ethan called him immediately. Dennis Shaw answered on the first ring, sounding breathless.
"Sir, I was about to contact you. The account is being used from your home office."
Ethan turned toward the stairwell. Sloane was already moving toward it.
"Stay here," he told her.
"I don't take orders from you."
"Then don't. But I want the police to know you tried to reach the office after footage started disappearing."
She stopped.
The officers were let inside. Isabel handed Caleb to Ethan only after Caleb agreed to sit beside her on the couch. She explained that the civil order was still active and that she understood she might be arrested for entering the house.
"I came because somebody told me my son was in danger," she said. "That doesn't erase the order. It explains why I took the risk."
Officer Raines watched Caleb carefully. "Can you tell me who locked the door?"
Caleb glanced at Sloane.
"You don't have to answer in front of anyone," Raines said. "And you didn't do anything wrong."
"She says bad kids need quiet," Caleb whispered. "If I cry for my first mommy, I have to sit there until I'm good again."
The other officer wrote something down.
Sloane gave a helpless shrug. "My stepson has severe separation anxiety. I've been trying to get him treatment."
"What is his treating doctor's name?" Raines asked.
"Dr. Malcolm Fenwick."
"We'll speak to the doctor."
Isabel reached into her pocket. "I found this in that room."
Raines held out an evidence bag. "We'll document where it came from."
Before she surrendered it, Isabel had only seen a blinking light. She didn't know whether anything remained on it.
Ethan asked Dennis to preserve all remaining security files and access logs. Then he phoned his attorney, demanded an emergency hearing, and instructed Sloane not to go near the nursery.
For one strange minute, the living room almost felt still.
Then Dennis called back.
"Mr. Whitlock, I recovered a thirty-second backup from the stairwell camera. I think you need to see it before anyone leaves."
The video appeared on Ethan's phone. Sloane was leading Caleb down the hall. He was struggling and crying for Isabel. Sloane bent to whisper into his ear.
The microphone captured her words with brutal clarity.
"Keep crying, Caleb. Every time you say her name, I make the room darker."
May you like
Ethan looked up slowly.
"How many times?" he asked his wife.
