Chapter 7 - The House Across the Street
By noon, Lena had arranged for a police detective to meet me privately.
Detective Mara Chen arrived in plain clothes and asked me to tell the story from the beginning without interrupting me once.
When I finished, she watched the doorbell video twice.
“You understand this is serious,” she said.
“I understood that when I hit the stairs.”
“I mean the husband’s behavior. If he knew beforehand, we’re no longer looking only at an assault.”
“What are we looking at?”
“Potential conspiracy, witness intimidation, obstruction. It depends on what we can prove.”
I showed her the note from the flowers.
She put it in an evidence sleeve.
Then my phone rang.
Mrs. Keane.
Her voice trembled. “Claire, I’m sorry. I should have called you sooner.”
“You saved me.”
“No. I only sent the short clip. My camera stores longer events when there’s movement near the sidewalk. I checked the rest.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“What else is there?”
“There’s a man leaving Margaret’s house about forty minutes before you fell. Gray suit. Briefcase.”
Carver.
Detective Chen leaned closer so she could hear.
Mrs. Keane continued. “And Ethan arrived before you did. He parked around the corner, not in the driveway.”
I felt sick.
“Can you send the full files?”
“I already did. To your email.”
Detective Chen asked Mrs. Keane not to delete anything.
We opened the first clip.
Carver walked down Margaret’s front steps at 2:11 p.m.
The next clip began at 2:34.
Ethan entered through the side gate.
I did not arrive until 2:52.
The fall happened at 3:07.
Fifteen minutes.
He had been inside with his mother for fifteen minutes before she touched me.
Then Mrs. Keane said, “There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“My camera caught Ethan coming back outside ten minutes before you arrived.”
We opened the final clip.
May you like
Ethan walked to his car, took something from the trunk, and carried it into the house.
A small black medical bag.
