Chapter 2 - Four Missing Minutes
The snakes remained in the pool until animal-control specialists arrived.
By sunset, Damien’s estate no longer resembled a home.
It looked like a crime scene.
Detective Ana Ruiz of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department stood beneath a patio umbrella while technicians photographed the terrace. Containers, nets and evidence bags covered the stone.
Damien sat wrapped in a gray blanket despite insisting he was not cold.
Evelyn remained beside him.
Her fingers rested on his shoulder.
Every touch now felt rehearsed.
Ruiz glanced at Damien’s medical paperwork.
“No bite.”
“No.”
“You’re lucky.”
“So everybody keeps telling me.”
Ruiz closed the folder.
“Mr. Crowe, does anyone have a reason to harm you?”
Damien almost laughed.
He was the founder of Crowe Meridian Systems, a cybersecurity and infrastructure company valued at more than twelve billion dollars.
He had fired executives.
Sued competitors.
Cancelled acquisitions.
Destroyed careers without intending to.
“I could give you a list.”
Evelyn squeezed his shoulder.
“Damien.”
“What?”
“You’re making this sound like somebody did it deliberately.”
Claire stood six feet away.
Ruiz noticed.
“You disagree, Ms. Hawthorne?”
Claire chose her words carefully.
“I think deliberate introduction has to be considered.”
Evelyn removed her hand from Damien.
“Based on what?”
“The species.”
Ruiz nodded. “They’re not native.”
Evelyn blinked.
“What are they?”
“Cottonmouths,” Ruiz said. “Likely captive bred.”
Damien stared toward the illuminated pool.
A reptile specialist had removed five snakes.
Five.
The number disturbed him.
One escaped animal was an accident.
Five were a decision.
Ruiz continued.
“We’ll trace suppliers. There’s another issue.”
Claire handed her the tablet.
“The pool cameras were manually disabled.”
Damien leaned forward.
“By whom?”
Claire hesitated.
“The system identifies your administrator account.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I know.”
Evelyn frowned.
“Could he have done it earlier and forgotten?”
Damien slowly turned his head.
“Forgotten?”
“You’ve been exhausted.”
“Evelyn.”
“I’m only saying you’ve been working eighteen-hour days.”
Ruiz watched them both.
Damien’s voice lowered.
“I didn’t disable anything.”
“I believe you,” Claire said immediately.
Evelyn looked at her.
Claire didn’t look away.
Ruiz asked Damien whether anyone knew his password.
“No.”
“IT administrators?”
“Authentication requires a rotating token.”
Claire added, “And biometric approval for high-level overrides.”
Ruiz raised an eyebrow.
“Biometric?”
“Voice or facial confirmation.”
Evelyn crossed her arms.
“Then Damien must have approved it.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“Or somebody used a recorded credential.”
Silence.
Damien looked toward the mansion.
The house contained microphones.
Smart assistants.
Video conferences.
Hundreds of hours of his voice.
The idea was no longer impossible.
Ruiz turned to Claire.
“I want the server logs preserved.”
“Already isolated.”
“Good.”
Evelyn stood.
“This is insane. Damien almost died, and now everyone is turning our house into some conspiracy movie.”
Damien looked at her.
“You keep saying almost died.”
She stared back.
“What would you call it?”
“An incident.”
“Five venomous snakes were swimming around you.”
“And you were standing beside the pool.”
The words landed harder than Damien intended.
Evelyn’s face went still.
Claire looked away.
Ruiz did not.
Evelyn spoke quietly.
“Are you accusing me?”
“No.”
“You sounded like you were.”
“I said where you were.”
“I was getting sunscreen.”
“From beside the pool?”
Her lips parted.
Then she laughed once.
“You’re in shock.”
Ruiz interrupted.
“For now, nobody is accusing anybody.”
But something had changed.
Everybody knew it.
A technician approached Claire holding an evidence bag.
Inside was the black plastic latch.
“We found residue.”
“What kind?”
“Too early to say.”
Ruiz examined it.
“Where was this?”
“Beside the cabana.”
Evelyn’s shoulders stiffened.
Damien saw it.
Only for a fraction of a second.
But he saw it.
Later, after police finished their preliminary interviews, Damien stood alone in his bedroom.
His clothes were still damp in a heap on the marble bathroom floor.
His wedding band sat on the vanity.
Evelyn entered.
“You should be resting.”
“I’m fine.”
“You nearly died.”
“So you’ve said.”
She shut the door.
“Damien, what is happening?”
He studied her reflection in the mirror.
For eleven years he had known the rhythm of Evelyn’s emotions.
Or believed he had.
“I’m trying to understand why the cameras stopped.”
“So am I.”
“And why they stopped under my credentials.”
“You run a cybersecurity company. Maybe somebody hacked them.”
“Possible.”
She relaxed slightly.
“Exactly.”
“But strange.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever did it understood my private authentication architecture.”
Her eyes flickered.
He continued.
“That’s not public knowledge.”
“Your employees know.”
“Six people.”
“Then investigate them.”
“I will.”
She walked toward him.
“I don’t like what you’re implying.”
“I’m not implying anything.”
“You keep looking at me differently.”
Damien turned.
“Were you alone outside?”
Evelyn stopped.
“Yes.”
“No staff?”
“No.”
“No visitors?”
“Of course not.”
He nodded.
Her answer came too quickly.
He remembered something.
For months, Marcus Vale had been a frequent presence around the estate.
Marcus had advised Crowe Meridian on a possible acquisition.
Charming.
Sharp.
Ambitious.
Evelyn liked talking to him because, as she once said, “He understands what it feels like to enter rooms built for somebody else.”
Damien had never questioned the friendship.
Now he asked, “When did you last see Marcus?”
The color shifted in her face.
“Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Answer me.”
“Last week.”
“Where?”
“At the foundation dinner.”
“You haven’t spoken since?”
“No.”
Damien stared.
Evelyn stared back.
Then Damien’s phone rang.
Claire.
He answered.
“What?”
Her voice was tight.
“I found something in the gate logs.”
Damien glanced at Evelyn.
“What?”
“A temporary access credential was issued today.”
His stomach tightened.
“To whom?”
Claire paused.
“Marcus Vale.”
Damien said nothing.
“And Damien?”
“Yes?”
“The credential was created from Evelyn’s account.”
Across the room, his wife watched his face.
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He lowered the phone.
For the first time since climbing out of the pool, Damien understood that the snakes were not the most dangerous thing inside his home.
