Chapter 9 - WHAT THE CAMERA SAW
Susan gave Rachel written permission to help retrieve the recordings from the account registered in her name.
They contacted the security provider and preserved the relevant files.
Robert had deleted clips from the camera's visible timeline, but the account showed an older cloud archive that hadn't yet been cleared.
We didn't know whether it held the whole incident.
While the files were being retrieved, Robert showed up outside our apartment.
I spotted his truck from the living room window.
David went downstairs, and I stayed by the door with my phone in hand.
Robert stood beside his open truck, wearing the same charcoal jacket he'd worn at our wedding.
“Come home,” he told David.
“You and your mother are embarrassing me.”
“Mom isn't a child.”
Robert stepped close enough that David leaned away.
“Give me the footage,” he said.
“I know you were in the account.”
I heard that through the intercom.
David looked up at our window.
For once, he didn't lower his eyes.
“Everything goes through the lawyers now.”
Robert slammed his truck door so hard the alarm chirped.
After he drove off, David came upstairs trembling.
“I thought he was going to hit me,” he admitted.
I touched his shoulder, then stopped.
“I care what happens to you,” I said.
“That doesn't mean I can keep making you safe from him.”
He swallowed.
“I know.”
Rachel called at seven with the archive update.
She had found a clip showing Robert placing the belt on the table before our guests arrived.
In the footage, he adjusted the camera angle and spoke to someone standing just beyond the frame.
“Make sure we get the reaction,” he said.
A man's voice answered, “I will.”
May you like
I recognized that voice immediately.
It was David's.
