Chương 12
Motion alerts.
Everything except administrator changes.
Maya took a step backward.
For weeks, possibly months, Denise had not simply been entering her home.
She had been able to see when Maya slept, when she woke, when she carried Liam, when she showered, when she was alone.
I revoked the account.
This time I did not hesitate.
Evelyn said, “Save the access logs.”
Maya walked into the living room and sat down.
Liam had begun crying again.
She picked him up automatically.
Her movements were careful, practiced.
Then she said, “They didn’t just take money.”
No one answered.
She looked at the dark television screen across the room, where her reflection held a baby against her chest.
“They watched me fall apart.”
For a moment, nobody in the room moved.
Maya rocked Liam in short, automatic motions while her eyes stayed fixed on the black television screen.
Evelyn finally said, “We need to preserve those access logs before anyone can change them.”
“I can export them,” I said.
“Do that, then stop touching the system unless there is a security reason.”
I gave her a look.
She gave me one back.
Maya said, “Can everybody stop talking like I’m not sitting here?”
We both stopped.
She looked down at Liam and adjusted the blanket under his chin.
“I want to know something.”
“What?” I asked.
“How many times did Denise watch?”
I opened my mouth.
Then closed it.
The administrator log showed access sessions, but counting them in front of her felt suddenly obscene.
“I can tell you,” I said.
“Do it.”
Evelyn started to object.
Maya turned toward her.
“I don’t need protecting from numbers.”
Evelyn nodded once.
I exported the logs to my laptop and filtered Denise’s profile.
There were one hundred seventy-three access events over five months.
Maya listened without reacting.
“Some may have been automatic alerts,” I added.
“How many were live views?”
I checked.
Forty-six.
Her jaw tightened.
“Recorded clips?”
“Ninety-one.”
“And the rest?”
“Door activity and motion alerts.”
She looked at the doorway where Denise had stood minutes earlier.
“She watched more after Liam was born, didn’t she?”
I did not want to answer.
That was answer enough.
“How much more?”
“Most of the activity is in the last month.”
Maya stared at me.
“She was supposed to be helping me.”
“Yes.”
“She was sitting somewhere watching me instead.”
“Possibly.”
“Don’t.”
Her voice sharpened.
“Not that word.”
I nodded.
“You’re right.”
Liam stirred against her chest.
Maya pressed her lips to the top of his head and closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, there were no tears.
“Save everything.”
I did.
Evelyn called her office and arranged for the exported security records, screenshots, transaction summaries, and photographs of the documents to be copied into a secure case file.
Aaron remained at the dining table, digging through Harbor Point’s filings with the quiet concentration of a man assembling furniture from instructions written by an enemy.
Around four, he looked up.
“I found something strange.”
No one in the house had much patience left for strange.
“What?” Maya asked.
“Harbor Point reported revenue before it had any customers.”
I leaned over his shoulder.
“How do you know it had no customers?”
“I don’t know that for certain.”
He pointed to a business credit application.
“But the application lists three major clients.”
“Names?”
Aaron turned the laptop.
Two were companies I had never heard of.
The third I recognized.
Hammond Pierce.
Mark’s employer.
Maya frowned.
“He told the lender his employer was Harbor Point’s client?”
“Yes.”
“Could they be?”
Aaron shook his head slowly.
“Not according to something else I found.”
He opened an email forwarded from Evelyn’s investigator.
Hammond Pierce had terminated Mark seven months earlier.
Maya stopped rocking.
“That’s impossible.”
Aaron looked uncomfortable.
“It appears accurate.”
“He goes to work every day.”
“Or leaves the apartment every day.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“He has meetings.”
“Maybe he does.”
“He complains about his boss.”
“That does not require having one.”
Maya turned to me.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“He told you about the layoffs.”
“Yes.”
“He said he survived them.”
“He did.”
She stood and paced two steps before remembering the doctor’s instructions and lowering herself back onto the couch.
“So for seven months, he’s been pretending to have a job.”
Aaron said, “It looks that way.”
“What did he do all day?”
No one answered.
Maya laughed without humor.
“Of course.”
She looked toward the front window.
“I kept feeling guilty because he was working and I was home.”
Her fingers moved across Liam’s back.
“He would come in and say he’d had this brutal day, and I’d apologize because dinner wasn’t ready.”
She looked at me.
“I apologized to him for being tired after surgery.”
The doorbell did not ring this time.
My phone did.
The number was unfamiliar.
I answered.
“Claire Bennett?”
“Yes.”
“This is Detective Marcus Hill with Central District.”
I stepped away from the others.
Hill had been a patrol officer during my last year as chief.
I remembered a tall man with careful handwriting and an irritating habit of arriving fifteen minutes early to everything.
“Detective.”
“I’m calling about a report involving your daughter’s apartment.”
My posture changed before I could stop it.
“What report?”
“Your son-in-law reported a burglary.”
I looked toward Maya.
“When?”
“About forty minutes ago.”
“He’s on a plane.”
“He made the report online, then followed up by phone.”
“What did he claim was taken?”
“Financial documents, electronics, and cash.”
I nearly laughed.
“Did he identify a suspect?”
There was a pause.
“He provided your name.”
That did make me laugh.
It was one short sound and not remotely amused.
“What exactly did he say I stole?”
“A laptop, approximately twelve thousand dollars in cash, and documents from his home office.”
“The laptop was there when we left.”
Hill went quiet.
“You were in the apartment?”
“Yes.”
“With Maya.”
May you like
“Did you remove anything?”
“Clothes, infant supplies, medical paperwork, and personal belongings belonging to Maya and Liam.”
