Chapter 6 - The Camera Went Dark
"Turned it off how?" I asked.
"There's a switch beside the pantry door," Dad said. "Your mother flipped it. I heard the little chime."
"Before I went upstairs?"
"Right after you took Emma's sweatshirt."
I sat down on the hospital hallway bench. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Patricia said Vanessa needed a minute to settle the girls. She didn't want another argument on video."
"Settle them? They were eating toast."
He started to defend her, then stopped. "I should have gone into the kitchen."
"You were in the kitchen, Dad. You picked up Emma's cup after she got hurt."
"I was afraid if I said anything, Vanessa would make things worse."
"She already had."
I gave Detective Brooks the new information. She said she would check the camera system and preserve whatever records existed. Switching off a camera didn't automatically prove what happened next, she cautioned. But the time mattered.
That night I dreamed of the dining room table. Every chair was empty except one. Emma sat there trying to tell me something, and I couldn't hear her over the faucet running.
I woke to find Tess bringing me coffee. "Your dad called me," she said. "He wants me to convince you not to speak to the detective again."
"What did you say?"
"I told him I wasn't taking applications for family cowardice."
She tried to smile, but her eyes were wet.
A little later Brooks called. "The camera account does show it stopped recording shortly before the incident. I'm requesting the original event history."
"Can you see who switched it off?"
"Not yet."
I watched Emma sleeping and wondered how many things I'd dismissed because someone older had called them normal.
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Then another family message arrived. It contained a statement for witnesses to sign: EMMA REACHED FOR THE SKILLET AND CAUSED AN ACCIDENT.
At the bottom of the screenshot was my father's name. He had already signed it.
