Chapter 4 - SOMEONE WAS STILL INSIDE
Ortiz ordered me outside while officers searched the house.
The basement window was unlocked. A muddy shoe print sat beneath it, but whoever had entered was gone.
“Bianca?” I asked.
“She was at her attorney’s office,” Ortiz said.
That made things worse. If Bianca hadn’t come inside, someone else had.
I changed every lock that afternoon.
Then my neighbor, David Mercer, walked over. A retired firefighter in his sixties, David noticed everything.
“I heard about Martha,” he said. “There’s something you should see.”
His wide-angle security camera covered part of my side gate. He pulled up footage from the day before.
At 1:42 p.m., Bianca opened the gate. Five minutes later, Mom appeared behind her, holding the pool railing.
At 1:49, Bianca moved out of frame. Mom suddenly jerked backward.
The camera didn’t show the exact pool edge, but it showed enough: Mom had not wandered out there alone.
Then David scrolled back three weeks.
A black SUV stopped near the gate after midnight. A tall man in a baseball cap got out. Bianca let him inside. He stayed forty-six minutes.
“Recognize him?” David asked.
I zoomed in. The face was blurry, but I knew the walk.
“Adrian.”
Bianca’s older brother.
Ortiz arrived and watched the footage twice.
“Tell me about him.”
“He’s a financial adviser.”
“For who?”
“I don’t know.”
My phone rang. Unknown number.
I answered.
May you like
A man said, “If you care about your mother, stop talking to the police.”
Then the line went dead.
