Chapter 3 - SEVEN MINUTES
Richard ordered Vanessa into the guest wing until police arrived.
I sat with Leo on the nursery floor while he pushed a toy truck against my knee.
“Vessa mad,” he whispered.
“Has she been mad before?”
He stared down.
“Vessa say no Anna.”
I felt cold.
For weeks Vanessa had complained that Leo was “too attached” to me. I thought she was jealous.
Now it sounded planned.
Detective Lena Ortiz watched the staircase video twice. Marcus showed her the login report.
“At 2:24,” he said, “Mr. Hale’s account disabled three more cameras.”
“Which ones?”
“Nursery hall. Kitchen corridor. Garage entrance.”
Those cameras covered a path from Leo’s room to the back exit.
Richard stared at the screen.
“Why disable them?”
“Because someone may have planned to move through the house unseen.”
I remembered Vanessa using Richard’s phone three nights earlier while he showered. She said she was ordering dinner.
When I told Ortiz, Vanessa shouted from the hall, “She’s lying!”
Richard looked at her.
“Were you using my phone?”
“I’m your fiancée.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Before she could answer, Leo screamed upstairs.
We ran.
He was standing in his crib, pointing toward the open nursery window. Cold air pushed the curtains inward.
“Man,” he said.
Ortiz crossed to the sill.
A muddy shoe print marked the narrow roof outside.
Marcus’s radio crackled.
“We found someone in the garage.”
Security brought up a man in a gray jacket with blood on one palm.
Vanessa whispered, “Caleb?”
Richard turned.
“You know him?”
Caleb looked at the detective.
“She texted me.”
Vanessa’s face collapsed.
Ortiz held out her hand for his phone.
“What did she want?”
May you like
Caleb answered without looking at Vanessa.
“A blue folder from Richard’s safe.”
