Chapter 6 - The House That Watched
Police returned to the mansion with a warrant for Victoria's surveillance equipment.
Nathan waited outside.
He could not make himself cross the foyer.
The marble floor was visible through the glass doors.
So was the empty place where the black cord had been.
Detective Ruiz joined him on the steps.
"Your children are staying with your sister?"
"No. A hotel suite."
Ruiz looked at him.
"Why not Claire?"
"I don't know who I trust."
She did not tell him that was paranoid.
Perhaps because it no longer sounded paranoid.
Inside the house, investigators found seven hidden cameras.
Three watched the children.
One watched Nathan's office.
One faced the pantry.
Two covered the foyer.
Victoria had installed them eight months earlier using a private security contractor.
The account was in her name.
The billing address belonged to a consulting company tied to Mercer Systems.
Julian's division.
Nathan stared at the invoice.
"Coincidence?"
Ruiz said, "We don't arrest coincidences."
"Do detectives ever say yes?"
"Rarely."
Mara arrived with a laptop.
"The local backup is in the smart-home control closet."
A technician had extracted a corrupted audio file from an old microphone embedded in the wall intercom.
The date was three weeks before Laura's death.
Nathan sat at the kitchen table.
Laura's kitchen.
Victoria had remodeled it after their marriage.
White stone replaced Laura's dark wood counters.
Nathan had approved the change because Victoria said the house needed to stop feeling like a museum.
Now he wondered how many things he had allowed her to erase.
The recording began with static.
Then Laura's voice.
Nathan's chest seized.
"...don't care what Julian told you."
Victoria answered.
"You don't understand what happens if this becomes public."
"I understand exactly what happens."
"You'll destroy Nathan."
"No. Julian is counting on Nathan being too proud to admit he didn't know."
Nathan stopped breathing.
Laura again.
"I checked the vendors. Three don't exist. Two are controlled by Cross Harbor Holdings."
Victoria whispered something unclear.
Laura raised her voice.
"You forged his authorization."
Nathan looked at Mara.
The recording crackled.
Victoria said, "I didn't have a choice."
"Everyone has a choice."
"You say that because you've always had money."
Silence.
Then Victoria's voice broke.
"He knows about my mother."
Laura softened.
"Then tell Nathan."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because he'll look at me exactly the way you are."
Laura answered, "I'm looking at you like someone who can still stop."
The recording ended.
Nathan sat completely still.
Ruiz replayed one line.
He knows about my mother.
"What does that mean?" she asked.
Nathan shook his head.
"Victoria's mother died four years ago."
"Of what?"
"Cancer."
"Financial problems?"
Nathan hesitated.
"Victoria said treatment bankrupted them."
Mara typed quickly.
"Her mother's medical debt was discharged through the estate. But Victoria personally received several large transfers around that time."
"From whom?"
"We'll trace them."
Nathan looked toward the wall.
The voice of his dead wife seemed to remain there.
Laura had known Victoria was involved in Westbridge.
Laura had tried to make her confess.
And somehow Nathan had known none of it.
Ruiz said, "Did Laura ever tell you she was investigating your company?"
Nathan stared at his hands.
"She tried to talk to me."
"When?"
"That summer."
"What did she say?"
"That Julian was moving too fast. That internal controls were a joke."
"And what did you say?"
Nathan swallowed.
"I told her she had been out of operations too long."
Mara looked at him.
Nathan remembered the argument now.
Laura standing beside their bedroom window.
You trust Julian because he tells you you're brilliant.
Nathan had snapped back.
And you criticize everything because you miss being needed.
He had apologized the next morning.
Not enough.
Ruiz closed her notebook.
"You may need separate counsel for the corporate side."
"I have Mara."
Mara shook her head.
"She's right. If federal issues develop, you need white-collar counsel."
Nathan almost smiled.
"My wife beats my children, may have lied about my first wife's death, my best friend may have stolen millions, and now I need federal counsel."
Ruiz's expression didn't change.
"Yes."
A uniformed officer entered carrying an evidence bag.
Inside was a small notebook.
"Found in Mrs. Mercer's dressing room."
Nathan looked at it.
Victoria's handwriting filled the pages.
Most entries were ordinary.
Schedules.
Charity names.
School events.
Then Ruiz turned to a page dated six weeks earlier.
One sentence had been written and underlined three times.
EMILY REMEMBERS MORE THAN SHE SHOULD.
Below it:
FIND M-12 BEFORE J DOES.
Nathan felt the room become cold.
J.
Julian.
Victoria had not installed cameras because she feared the children.
May you like
She had installed them because she was searching for the same thing Julian was searching for.
And Laura had hidden it with Emily.
