Chapter 9 - THE CAMERA IN EMILY’S ROOM
We did not return home alone.
Thomas contacted the police.
Given the forged documents, suspected illegal surveillance, and attempted interference with a minor, they agreed to send detectives.
Detective Maria Alvarez arrived first.
She was calm, direct, and uninterested in anyone’s social status.
Within an hour, technicians found three hidden devices.
One in my office.
One in the kitchen.
And one in the hallway outside Emily’s bedroom.
I nearly lost control when they found that one.
“Was there a camera inside her room?”
Alvarez shook her head.
“Not that we’ve found.”
“Keep looking.”
“We will.”
Emily sat downstairs with my mother.
She knew police were searching the house.
She did not know why.
I intended to keep as much of this away from her as possible.
Then one technician called us upstairs.
He removed a small device from the hallway smoke detector.
“Audio and video.”
“How long?”
“Hard to say until we examine storage.”
Detective Alvarez placed it into an evidence bag.
“Who had access to your house?”
“Rebecca lived here.”
“Anyone else?”
“Housekeeper twice a week.”
“Security company?”
“Yes.”
“Contractors?”
I thought about the previous winter.
Rebecca had insisted we upgrade the home security system.
She said it would make her feel safer.
The company had been selected by her father.
I laughed once.
It sounded empty.
“Of course.”
Alvarez looked at me.
“What?”
“The security company.”
“What about it?”
“Rebecca chose them.”
That evening, police obtained initial information from the company.
The monitoring account was registered under my address.
But the administrator email was not mine.
It belonged to Rebecca.
She had been able to access cameras, entry logs, and portions of our alarm system for months.
The idea that she had watched Emily and me inside our own home made me sick.
Then the technicians recovered archived video.
One clip was from six weeks earlier.
I watched Rebecca enter my office while I was away.
She opened the security cabinet.
She photographed trust documents.
Then Jonathan appeared.
Not on a call.
Not remotely.
Inside my house.
He stood beside her.
He helped remove the original binder.
I turned toward him.
He looked destroyed.
“You said you didn’t forge my signature.”
“I didn’t.”
“You said you only knew part of this.”
“I was afraid.”
“You stood in my office.”
“I know.”
“You went through Laura’s papers.”
He said nothing.
I stepped toward him.
Detective Alvarez moved between us.
“Mr. Carter.”
I stopped.
Jonathan’s eyes filled.
“Charles had evidence of something I did years ago.”
“What?”
“I diverted company funds.”
Nathan stared at him.
“How much?”
“Eight hundred thousand.”
My stomach turned.
“I paid it back.”
“You stole from us.”
“Yes.”
“And Charles knew.”
“Yes.”
“So he owned you.”
Jonathan nodded.
There it was.
Not loyalty.
Not complexity.
Not some impossible moral dilemma.
Greed created the weakness.
Fear kept it alive.
Alvarez took Jonathan into another room for a formal statement.
I remained upstairs.
Emily quietly appeared at the bottom of the staircase.
“Daddy?”
I immediately went to her.
“What are you doing awake?”
“I heard people.”
I picked her up.
She looked toward the hallway.
“Did Rebecca put the little camera there?”
I froze.
“How do you know about it?”
Emily pointed.
“She told me it was to make sure I behaved.”
Everything inside me stopped.
“When?”
“A long time ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She said you knew.”
The same strategy again.
Make Emily believe I agreed.
Use my daughter’s trust in me as a weapon.
I closed my eyes.
Then Emily said, “There was another one.”
I looked at her.
“Where?”
“In Rebecca’s room.”
“You mean our bedroom?”
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
Then she pointed toward the guest room Rebecca used as a dressing room.
“She had a camera in there too.”
“Did you see it?”
“Yes.”
“What was it pointed at?”
Emily thought for a moment.
“The desk.”
My pulse quickened.
“What desk?”
“The one where she talked to the man on the computer.”
“What man?”
May you like
Emily looked at me.
“The judge.”
