Chapter 3 - The Black Dot Behind the Books
Ethan returned home after the hospital interviews because an officer allowed him to collect medication and clothes under supervision. He had spent all evening demanding to know why I had "made a scene." Alone in Lily's bedroom, he finally saw the thing he'd ignored.
A tiny black circle sat behind a row of picture books.
He pulled down a stuffed rabbit, leaned closer, and found a camera lens drilled through the back of a painted wooden shelf. A blue wire disappeared into the wall. He backed away and called the deputy downstairs.
"There's a camera in my daughter's room."
"Don't touch it," Deputy Ellis told him. "Is it yours?"
"No. I've never seen it."
The deputy shone his flashlight along the molding. A second lens looked out from beneath a kitchen cabinet. A third had been placed above the hallway smoke detector. None was connected to the ordinary doorbell system Ethan had installed years earlier.
Detective Priya Shah obtained permission to secure the equipment pending further legal process. She photographed each device, its position, and the wiring. Vanessa, who had been silent through the search, suddenly wanted her lawyer.
When Shah asked who had installed the cameras, Vanessa answered, "For security. Ethan knew."
"I didn't," Ethan said.
"You signed the paperwork," she snapped.
He remembered signing invoices on his phone while traveling. He hadn't read them.
At the hospital the next morning, Shah showed me a photograph of the shelf. Lily recognized it immediately.
"That's the watching eye," she said.
I tried to keep my face calm. "Who called it that?"
"Vanessa. She said if I told Grandma, the eye would make Daddy send me away."
Lily squeezed my hand while the detective wrote it down.
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An hour later, Shah called. Investigators had found a recording unit in an upstairs linen cabinet. Most files were dated and tagged by room. One folder was different.
It was labeled FINAL PLACEMENT, and inside was a document titled: PETITION TO REMOVE MARGARET COLE AS FAMILY CONTACT.
