Chapter 2 - Twelve Missing Minutes
No one left the foyer.
Victor ordered a doctor to the house and told security to seal the gates. Serena protested immediately.
“This is insane. I live here.”
“For tonight,” Victor said, “everyone stays where I can find them.”
Dr. Nathan Cole arrived ten minutes later. He examined Ethan on a sofa while Clara sat on the floor nearby with an ice pack pressed against her stomach.
“It’s a dislocation,” the doctor said. “Possibly a small fracture. We need imaging.”
Victor’s face tightened.
Serena folded her arms. “He falls all the time.”
Clara looked at her. “He didn’t fall.”
“Enough,” Victor said.
The word was aimed at both women, but his gaze stayed on Serena.
Marcus connected his tablet to the foyer television. The screen filled with a timeline from the estate’s security system.
4:09 p.m. Camera active.
4:10 p.m. Camera disabled.
4:22 p.m. Camera restored.
“Who has permission to disable interior cameras?” Victor asked.
“Me. You. Serena. And Mr. Kline,” Marcus replied.
Daniel Kline was Victor’s chief of staff, a man who had worked for the Blackwood family for eleven years.
Serena gave a brittle laugh. “So Daniel could have done it.”
Marcus ignored her.
“The login came from the upstairs office terminal.”
“That proves nothing,” Serena said. “My password is saved there.”
Clara shifted carefully. “Check the local memory.”
Everyone looked at her.
Marcus frowned. “What?”
“The cameras have internal storage, don’t they? Most systems keep a short rolling cache in case the network drops.”
Serena’s eyes sharpened.
Victor studied Clara. “How do you know that?”
“My brother installs security systems.”
Marcus stood immediately.
“Stay here.”
He disappeared into the service corridor.
Serena walked toward Victor. “This is humiliating. You’re letting a housekeeper turn your home into an interrogation room.”
Clara lowered her eyes, but Ethan reached for her with his good hand.
“Cwa-wa.”
Victor noticed.
So did Serena.
Twenty minutes later Marcus returned carrying a small black storage card inside an evidence sleeve.
“We got eleven minutes.”
Victor’s voice dropped. “Play it.”
Marcus inserted the card.
The first image showed an empty foyer.
Then Serena entered holding Ethan’s wrist.
She looked directly at the camera.
Reached up toward the wall panel.
May you like
And smiled.
But before the video could continue, every light in the mansion went out.
