Chapter 6 - Someone in the House
Richard was already moving before the call disconnected.
“Stay here with Leo.”
Anna stood. “No.”
His head snapped toward her.
“Anna—”
“Someone broke into our home thirty minutes after we found proof Vanessa pushed our son. Someone stole the trust papers from my purse. I’m not sitting here pretending those things aren’t connected.”
Richard stepped close enough that his voice did not carry beyond the room.
“I’m going back with police. You are staying in a locked hospital wing with security outside the door.”
“I don’t need permission to be afraid.”
“No. But right now I need you alive more than I need you angry at me.”
That stopped her.
For a moment, Richard looked less like the controlled executive everyone knew and more like a father who had watched his child nearly die.
Anna nodded once.
“Call me every five minutes.”
“I will.”
Detective Mara Alvarez arrived before Richard left. She was compact, gray-eyed, and calm in the way people became after years of standing inside other families’ disasters.
She watched the thumbnail footage twice.
“That image helps,” she said, “but it won’t be enough by itself. Defense will argue balance, perspective, accidental contact.”
“She shoved him,” Anna said.
“I believe that’s possible. I’m telling you what I can prove.”
Alvarez took the jammer in an evidence bag, then sent two officers with Richard.
Twenty-three minutes later, Anna’s phone rang.
Richard.
“We’re inside.”
“What happened to the guard?”
“Concussion. He’s awake. Someone hit him from behind.”
“Vanessa?”
“No sign of her.”
Anna stared at Leo sleeping again.
“What did they take?”
Richard was quiet.
“Nothing obvious.”
“Then why break in?”
“I think they came for one thing.”
“What?”
“The security server.”
Anna’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Is it gone?”
“No.”
She exhaled.
“But the cabinet was open. Someone removed a drive.”
“The footage?”
“Maybe.”
A door opened on Richard’s end.
She heard Alvarez say something in the background.
Then Richard said, “Anna, I need to ask you something strange.”
“What?”
“Did you put a camera in Leo’s nursery?”
“No. We use the baby monitor.”
“Then somebody else did.”
Anna went cold.
May you like
Richard continued.
“There’s a hidden camera inside the smoke detector above his crib.”
