Chapter 9 - PHASE ONE
I didn’t sleep that night.
At 4:00 a.m., I walked through every room in the house with a flashlight and a screwdriver.
I checked vents. Smoke detectors. Picture frames. Chargers. Anything that could hide a camera.
At 4:47, I found one.
A tiny black lens inside the bedroom clock Bianca had bought me for Christmas.
I stared at it until my hands started shaking.
Then I called Ortiz.
By sunrise, technicians had removed three hidden cameras.
Bedroom.
Home office.
Upstairs hallway outside Mom’s room.
The cameras were connected to a private wireless network with a password no one in my family recognized.
“Someone was documenting your routines,” the technician said.
I thought about the photograph of me asleep.
Then I thought about all the nights Bianca had brought me tea.
All the times she had asked if I was tired.
All the jokes about how hard I worked.
Every loving gesture now had a shadow behind it.
Around noon, Detective Ortiz received Claire’s bank records.
Payments from Adrian’s consulting company had started seven months earlier.
The same week Bianca moved into my house full-time.
But the largest payment was recent.
Fifteen thousand dollars.
Memo: WEDDING WEEK COVERAGE.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Claire claimed she didn’t know.
Then Ortiz’s phone rang.
She listened for less than a minute before standing.
“We have a problem.”
Adrian had not shown up at his office.
His apartment was empty.
His passport was gone.
And Bianca had left her attorney’s office an hour earlier without telling anyone where she was going.
I called Mom.
No answer.
I called the security guard at my house.
No answer.
Then the home alarm app opened on my phone.
SIDE GATE: OPEN.
BACK DOOR: OPEN.
POOL CAMERA: OFFLINE.
May you like
I was already running for the door when a text message appeared from Mom’s phone.
Come alone if you want her safe.
