Chapter 10 - THE CAMERA
The next morning, Rachel brought a digital-security consultant named Evan.
He found the first camera in fourteen minutes.
It was hidden inside a smoke detector above my kitchen.
The second was in the home office.
The third was in the bedroom hallway.
I sat on the stairs while he removed them.
“Audio too?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Hard to tell.”
Andrew had moved out.
Lorraine was staying with a friend.
Yet I suddenly felt watched in my own skin.
Evan traced one device to a cloud account registered through Parker Development Group.
Marcus.
I called Detective Ruiz.
She came back with a warrant request underway.
Then Daniel called.
“They reopened Natalie’s crash.”
I closed my eyes.
“Okay.”
“There’s more.”
Of course there was.
Natalie’s autopsy had shown no alcohol.
No drugs.
But her phone had been missing.
Daniel had always assumed it was lost at the scene.
Now he wondered whether someone took it.
That afternoon, Marcus finally called me.
I recorded the conversation.
“You’re making a mistake,” he said.
“Which one?”
“Believing Andrew.”
“I don’t.”
“Good.”
“Did you put cameras in my house?”
Silence.
“Marcus?”
“I needed leverage.”
“Against who?”
“Andrew.”
“You invaded my home.”
“Andrew stole from me.”
“Then sue him.”
“He was using your money.”
“My money?”
“He drained accounts you didn’t know existed.”
My stomach tightened.
“What accounts?”
“The clinic retirement transfer.”
I stood.
“What?”
“Check your rollover.”
I hung up and called the plan administrator.
There had been no withdrawal.
But there had been an attempted transfer request eight months earlier.
It failed because the signature verification did not match.
I felt physically sick.
Rachel sat across from me.
“This was systematic.”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
My marriage had become a burglary where the thief slept beside me.
That evening, Detective Ruiz called.
Police searched Marcus’s office.
They found copies of loan documents.
Surveillance files.
Financial records.
And Natalie’s missing phone.
Daniel cried when I told him.
Then Ruiz said, “Claire, there is a video on the phone you need to know about.”
“What video?”
“Natalie recorded the argument at the cottage.”
I gripped the table.
“What does it show?”
“It shows Andrew grabbing her arm.”
I closed my eyes.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
Ruiz hesitated.
“It shows Lorraine saying she’ll make sure Natalie never sees another dollar.”
My stomach turned.
“And Marcus?”
“He takes Natalie’s bag.”
“Then what?”
“The recording ends.”
I thought that was the worst of it.
It wasn’t.
Ruiz continued.
“Claire, there’s one more video.”
“Of what?”
“You.”
I went still.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
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That was when I realized Marcus had not only watched me.
Someone had been inside my bedroom.
