Chapter 3 - Seventeen Minutes
By midnight, Detective Lena Ortiz was sitting beside my hospital bed with a notebook on her knee.
I told her everything.
The affair. The messages. Vanessa blocking the door. The shove. Ryan insisting I had fallen.
Ortiz listened without interrupting.
"And the camera?"
"Ryan said it was offline."
"Did he manage the security system?"
"Mostly."
Maya snorted. "Convenient."
Ortiz gave her a look that said she agreed but needed facts.
The next morning, an officer went to the estate with a warrant to preserve the recording.
He called Ortiz while she was still in my room.
She put him on speaker.
"System shows a manual service interruption," he said. "Front porch camera was disabled at 2:14 p.m. and restored at 2:31."
My fall happened at 2:23.
Seventeen missing minutes.
"Who has admin access?" Ortiz asked.
"Mr. Mercer and Mrs. Mercer. Also a maintenance account."
"I haven't opened that app in months," I said.
Ortiz nodded.
"Can you tell which account disabled it?"
"Maintenance credentials."
Ryan had created those credentials.
My stomach tightened for a reason that had nothing to do with contractions.
Maya leaned forward.
"What about the memory card?"
A pause.
"Slot is empty."
I closed my eyes.
Someone hadn't just counted on the camera being off.
Someone had removed the local backup too.
Ortiz ended the call.
"Emily, I need to ask something uncomfortable. Did Ryan know you had discovered the affair before Vanessa confronted you?"
"I don't know."
Maya suddenly grabbed my phone.
"Your last text to me. You said, 'I found everything. I'm leaving before I confront him.'"
"Right."
"Did Ryan have access to your messages?"
My answer came too slowly.
We shared an old tablet tied to my account.
A tablet that sat on the kitchen charging dock.
Ortiz saw my face change.
"What?"
"He might have seen my message before I reached the front door."
Then Maya's phone buzzed.
She read the screen and went pale.
"Emily... the housekeeper just sent me something."
May you like
"What?"
"She says Ryan told everyone to leave the estate at two o'clock yesterday. Everyone except Vanessa."
