Chapter 2 - What the Camera Saw
Richard entered the study and locked the door behind him.
Ethan followed. Sophia tried, but Richard stopped her with one look.
"You stay outside."
"This is my house too," she snapped.
Richard almost smiled. "No. It isn't."
He turned the key.
The security console had been installed after a burglary two years earlier. Ethan had hated the cameras. Sophia had called them paranoid. Richard had kept them anyway.
He opened the hallway feed.
The screen showed 7:42 p.m.
Sophia appeared alone.
She looked left.
Then right.
Then directly toward the hallway where Ethan had been talking with relatives.
Ethan leaned closer to the monitor.
On the recording, Sophia pulled three buttons from her own blouse. She twisted her hair with both hands. Then she stepped near Richard, who had just entered carrying a glass of water.
"Sophia?" recorded Richard asked. "Are you all right?"
She threw the glass from his hand.
Then she screamed.
Ethan's face went gray.
They watched him run into the frame and strike his father.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Finally Ethan whispered, "Oh my God."
Richard stared at the frozen image of his son's hand against his face.
"You didn't even ask me," he said.
Ethan swallowed. "Dad..."
"You didn't ask one question."
A hard knock hit the study door.
"Ethan!" Sophia shouted. "That footage is misleading. He threatened me before that."
Richard clicked backward on the timeline.
7:41.
7:40.
7:39.
Then the video jumped.
Sixteen minutes were missing.
Ethan noticed it too.
"Why is there a gap?"
Richard's expression hardened.
He opened the system log.
Someone had deleted footage at 6:58 p.m. using an administrator account.
The account name appeared on screen.
ETHAN.WHITMORE.
Ethan stared at it.
"I never logged in."
Richard looked toward the locked door.
May you like
Sophia had stopped knocking.
Then they heard the front door downstairs slam shut.
