Chapter 4 - THE CAMERA THAT WENT DARK
By midnight, Elena was gone to a hotel, escorted out by Arthur's security chief, Ben Cole. Arthur changed the gate code, the alarm code, and every digital lock in the house.
Maria stayed because Lucas refused to sleep unless she was nearby.
"I should have told you sooner," she said in the kitchen.
Arthur looked up. "Told me what?"
"Mrs. Vance started asking strange questions months ago. What time Lucas went to bed. Whether you ever raised your voice. Whether you kept medication in the house."
"Why didn't you say something?"
"Because every question sounded harmless by itself. And because she kept reminding me that she could fire me."
Arthur rubbed his face. "I'm sorry."
Maria shook her head. "Be sorry to Lucas. He's been scared in his own home."
The words landed hard because they were true.
Ben arrived with a laptop containing the home's security logs. "We have another issue."
The upstairs hallway camera had gone offline eleven separate times over the past six weeks. Each outage lasted between twelve and twenty minutes.
"Hardware problem?" Arthur asked.
"No. Manual override."
Ben opened the access history.
Every override came from Elena's account.
Maria leaned closer. "Check the study."
Ben did.
The study camera had been disabled on the exact night Arthur's signature first appeared on the trust documents.
"She used my office," Arthur said.
"Looks that way."
Then Ben frowned.
"What?"
"The override didn't come from Elena's account that night."
Arthur felt his pulse jump.
Ben rotated the screen.
USER: GRAHAM.PIKE — GENERAL COUNSEL.
Graham Pike had been Arthur's lawyer for fourteen years.
He had drafted Claire's will.
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He had helped create Lucas's trust.
And he was scheduled to run the board meeting in less than nine hours.
