Chương 5
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“And that you both avoid involving company personnel.”
“Fine.”
“There’s another issue.”
Of course there was.
“Your mother says some of her actions occurred because she had concerns about the welfare of your child.”
Daniel opened his eyes.
“What did she tell you?”
“I don’t want to get between—”
“What did she tell you?”
Martin sighed.
“She said Claire had exhibited erratic behavior and that yesterday’s incident began when Margaret tried to intervene.”
Daniel stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror.
He looked absurdly normal.
Same brown hair.
Same pale-blue shirt from the day before.
Same wedding ring.
Only his eyes seemed different.
“She told the board my wife is mentally unstable.”
“She expressed concerns.”
“She hit her.”
“I’m not defending that.”
“Then stop making it grammatical background.”
Martin went silent.
Daniel had never spoken to him that way.
He ended the call five minutes later.
When he came out, Claire was standing by the window.
“How bad?”
“My mother told the board you’re unstable.”
Claire laughed.
This one was real, though there was nothing funny in it.
“Efficient.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Daniel stopped.
Claire turned.
“Don’t keep saying that like it’s the end of the sentence.”
He nodded.
“What should the end be?”
“I don’t know.”
She looked back at traffic.
“That’s kind of the problem.”
That afternoon, Claire’s sister Emily arrived from Virginia with two duffel bags, six frozen meals, and no patience for Daniel.
She hugged Claire for a long time.
Then she looked at Daniel.
“I’m trying very hard.”
“At what?”
“Not saying what I think of you.”
Claire said, “Em.”
“What?”
“He knows.”
Emily looked at Daniel.
“Does he?”
Daniel picked up one of the bags.
“Guest room’s through there.”
Emily did not thank him.
Her presence was unpleasant and useful.
For the first time since leaving the mansion, Claire relaxed enough to take a nap.
Daniel sat in the living room with Emily while Noah slept nearby.
Emily ate pretzels from the minibar and studied Daniel as though he were a damaged appliance.
“How long has your mother been telling people Claire is crazy?”
“Don’t use that word.”
Emily’s eyebrows went up.
“Interesting place to find your standards.”
Daniel looked away.
She chewed another pretzel.
“I’m angry too.”
“No, you’re guilty.”
“Yes.”
“Different thing.”
Daniel nodded.
Emily wiped salt from her thumb.
“Claire called me three nights ago.”
Daniel turned back.
“She said Margaret kept checking on the baby every twenty minutes and then accusing Claire of being too anxious.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
Emily stared at him.
“Are you serious?”
He immediately regretted asking.
“She told me not to,” Emily said. “She said if I called you, you’d confront Margaret, and Margaret would make it about Claire overreacting.”
Daniel leaned back.
“That’s exactly what would’ve happened.”
“I know.”
“You don’t know me.”
“No. I know my sister.”
She looked toward the closed bedroom door.
“She was embarrassed.”
“Of what?”
“That she couldn’t convince her own husband something was wrong in his own mother’s house.”
Daniel said nothing.
Emily softened by perhaps five percent.
“For what it’s worth, she didn’t think your mother was going to hit her.”
“Neither did I.”
“Yeah.”
She reached for another pretzel.
“That’s not worth as much.”
Two days later, Detective Ruiz asked Daniel and Claire to come to the station.
They left Noah with Emily.
The interview room had beige walls and a table whose surface had been scratched by years of nervous hands.
Ruiz entered carrying a folder.
She was in her early forties, with dark hair pulled into a low ponytail and the tired manner of someone who did not waste energy pretending evidence was more dramatic than it was.
“We recovered more video.”
Claire stopped breathing for a second.
Daniel reached for her hand.
She allowed him to take it.
Ruiz opened a laptop.
“The home system records locally and synchronizes selected footage to cloud storage. Someone with administrator credentials changed recording settings on the nursery camera at 2:16 P.M. the day of the incident.”
Daniel looked at the screen.
“Whose credentials?”
“Your mother’s.”
Claire squeezed his fingers.
Ruiz continued.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean she personally made the change. Credentials can be used by other people. We’re still establishing device access.”
Daniel nodded.
“Can we see the video?”
Ruiz turned the laptop.
The recovered footage began twenty-three seconds before the clip Daniel had seen.
Margaret entered the nursery.
She checked the hallway.
Then she approached the monitoring base.
She pressed a button.
The device’s indicator changed.
She opened a drawer and placed something inside.
Claire appeared at the door.
The audio was damaged but not absent.
Ruiz increased the volume.
Static.
Then Claire’s voice.
“What are you doing?”
Margaret turned.
“I’m turning this nonsense off.”
“The doctor told us to use it.”
“The doctor told you not to live your life staring at an app.”
“Turn it back on.”
“You need to calm down.”
“I am calm.”
“You’re shaking.”
“Because you keep touching his things.”
Margaret reached for the baby.
Claire moved between them.
“No.”
“He’s crying.”
“I’ve got him.”
“You clearly don’t.”
Claire pushed Margaret’s hand away.
Margaret stepped back.
There.
A small movement.
The thing Margaret had meant when she said Claire did something first.
Claire had shoved her wrist.
Not punched her.
Not attacked her.
A defensive swipe.
Still physical.
Margaret looked down at her own hand.
Then at Claire.
“You do that again and you’ll regret it.”
“Get out.”
“This is my house.”
“Get out of the nursery.”
Margaret moved forward.
Claire stood her ground.
The slap came so quickly that Daniel’s brain tried to reject it even though he had been expecting it.
Margaret struck Claire across the left cheek.
Claire stumbled into the side of the changing table.
A small container fell to the floor.
Margaret froze.
For one second she looked horrified.
She reached toward Claire.
Claire backed away.
Then Margaret looked up.
Directly at the camera.
May you like
The footage ended.
Nobody in the interview room spoke.
