Chapter 5 - What the Camera Saw
I played the recording three times because the first two hurt too much to understand.
My father wasn't visible. Only his voice came from the kitchen doorway, low and weary. "I thought we agreed you wouldn't touch Nina's things."
"I said we'd protect them," Clara answered. "And we're doing what we have to do for this family."
She slipped the pendant into her pocket. Then she took a blue folder from behind the sewing desk and turned a page covered in signatures.
"Emily won't agree," Dad said.
"Emily doesn't need to know until the closing."
That sentence cut through me. My father had known there was a closing. Whatever Clara had done, he had known I was being kept in the dark.
I saved the original file to two separate drives, preserving its date and length as June had advised. Leona watched beside me, rubbing one thumb across her wedding ring.
"I knew Clara disliked Nina," she said. "I didn't know Thomas had gotten this far."
We scrolled to the hour of the porch fight. The owl's lens looked toward the glass doors. Through them we could see Clara blocking my way, clutching my arm, and backing toward the railing. My mouth moved as I tried to pull free. She let go and stepped behind the bushes herself.
The camera could not show the exact second she landed, but it showed enough to destroy her claim that I'd charged at her. Seconds later, Dad ran into frame and shoved me so hard I fell outside its view.
I stopped the playback. "He'll say the angle is wrong."
"Then let him say it in front of the original file," June replied when I called her.
I sent her the clips through a secure folder. She arranged for a digital evidence specialist to preserve copies without altering the originals.
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That evening an unfamiliar number texted me a photograph of Mom's ruby pendant lying on a pawnshop counter.
Beneath the photograph was one sentence: STOP LOOKING, OR YOUR FATHER GOES DOWN WITH HER.
