Chapter 4 - The Camera In Maya's Room
Julian wanted Maya to stay at a hotel.
Maya refused.
"If someone planted a camera in my room, the police need to find it before whoever did this removes it."
Two officers escorted them back to the Mercer house just after midnight. Vivian had been told not to return while detectives investigated the balcony incident. She had left with her attorney, Conrad Pike.
Maya had never liked Pike. He smiled without warmth and always spoke to staff as if they were furniture.
Her room looked normal.
Blue walls. Narrow bed. Oak dresser. A framed photograph of Maya and her younger sister at a Texas Rangers game.
Then Detective Aaron Cole turned off the lights.
A tiny green dot glowed inside the alarm clock.
"There," Maya said.
Cole unplugged it with gloves.
The clock had no brand name and no serial number. Inside was a micro-camera with a memory card and a wireless transmitter.
Julian looked sick.
"How long has that been here?"
Maya thought back. "The clock appeared after Christmas. I assumed housekeeping replaced the old one."
"You are housekeeping," Cole said.
"Exactly."
They searched the rest of the room.
Under the bed, they found a second device.
Not a camera.
A voice recorder.
The memory card held weeks of audio: Maya calling her sister, Maya talking to Lily when the child sneaked in for bedtime stories, Maya telling another employee she was worried about Vivian's temper.
"Someone was building a file on you," Cole said.
Julian stared at the recorder. "To make her look obsessed with Lily?"
"Or unstable. Or intrusive. Depends on what clips they kept."
Maya remembered Vivian's words at the balcony.
You expect him to believe a maid over his wife?
It had not been panic.
It had been preparation.
Cole's phone rang.
He listened, then looked at Julian.
"We traced the text messages sent to Ms. Torres. They came from a prepaid phone. The phone is still active."
"Where?" Julian asked.
Cole's eyes shifted toward the back of the house.
"Inside this property."
May you like
A crash sounded from the kitchen.
Someone was still in the mansion.
