Chapter 3 - What Victoria Recorded
That night, Lily stayed with Arthur’s mother, Margaret.
Elena went to urgent care.
Victoria was told not to return to the house while the investigation continued.
She called Arthur six times.
At midnight, Officer Reed called.
“We recovered the memory cards.”
Arthur sat in the dark study.
“What’s on them?”
“A lot.”
“How long?”
“About five months.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
Five months of his home.
His private office.
“Victoria appears on multiple recordings adjusting the devices.”
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
“So she lied.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“That’s better discussed in person.”
Arthur drove to the station.
Reed showed him one clip.
Victoria standing at the top of the stairs three weeks earlier.
Victoria said:
“If your father asks, you fell because you were running.”
Lily answered:
“But I wasn’t running.”
Victoria leaned closer.
“Do you want Daddy to think you’re a liar?”
Arthur stared at the screen.
He could not speak.
Reed played another.
Victoria in Arthur’s study with a folder.
She opened his desk.
Photographed documents.
Then sent images from her phone.
Arthur recognized the folder.
His late wife, Grace, had created it before she died.
Reed paused the footage.
“Who has legal access to that trust?”
“Me.”
“Anyone else?”
“My attorney.”
“Victoria?”
“No.”
“Then we have another problem.”
He opened a recovered audio file.
Victoria’s voice:
“Arthur will sign it if he thinks it protects Lily.”
A man answered:
“And if he doesn’t?”
Victoria said:
“Then the next incident needs to look worse.”
“Who is the man?”
Reed zoomed the frame.
Arthur knew him.
Charles Mercer.
May you like
His family financial adviser.
And the person who managed Grace’s estate after her death.
