Chapter 5 - The Camera That Survived
The fire was contained in eleven minutes.
The damage was not.
Two server racks were destroyed.
Three more suffered heat and water damage.
Victor stood in the security room at two in the morning while technicians worked around him.
Ethan had been returned upstairs.
Adrian had been ordered to stay in the library under private security supervision.
Victor trusted no one enough to send him home.
Raymond Pike arrived wearing jeans beneath his security jacket.
“What happened?”
Victor turned.
“You tell me.”
Pike looked toward the burned server bay.
“Electrical fire.”
“Convenient.”
“Are you accusing me?”
“I’m accusing everybody until I know who deserves exemption.”
Raymond accepted that.
He had been with the Hale family for eleven years.
Victor had once trusted him with Ethan’s life.
Tonight, that fact felt less comforting.
“Were the historical logs backed up?” Victor asked.
“Some.”
“Some?”
“Your home system isn’t corporate infrastructure.”
Victor’s jaw hardened.
Raymond gestured toward another console.
“One independent camera records locally.”
“Which?”
“The old west gate unit.”
Victor frowned.
“That thing still works?”
“Barely. Simone insisted we keep it after the security upgrade.”
Victor remembered.
Simone hated replacing anything that functioned.
“Pull the footage from the week of the crash.”
Raymond hesitated.
“You think something happened here?”
“Do it.”
Twenty minutes later, grainy footage appeared.
The timestamp read three days before Simone’s death.
A vehicle approached the west gate.
Not Simone’s.
A fifteen-year-old silver Honda.
A young Black man stepped out.
Daniel Carter.
Victor recognized him from Maya’s photograph.
Daniel spoke to the intercom for several minutes.
Then waited.
A second vehicle entered from inside the estate.
Simone’s blue Range Rover.
She drove herself.
Victor leaned forward.
The cars stopped on opposite sides of the gate.
Simone got out.
So did Daniel.
Victor whispered, “She met him.”
Raymond said nothing.
The two stood in rain for nearly fifteen minutes.
Daniel handed Simone a large envelope.
She opened it.
Even in the poor footage, Victor could see her reaction.
Alarm.
She looked toward the house.
Then toward the main road.
Finally she took Daniel’s shoulders with both hands and said something.
No audio.
Daniel nodded.
Simone carried the envelope back to her car.
The footage skipped.
Victor cursed.
Then another segment appeared twenty-seven minutes later.
A black sedan sat on the roadside beyond the estate.
Unfamiliar.
No visible license plate.
Raymond leaned closer.
“That vehicle appears again.”
“When?”
“Night of the crash.”
Victor stared at him.
“You’ve seen this?”
“No. I’m searching now.”
Raymond accessed county traffic footage.
A black sedan appeared two intersections behind Simone’s SUV.
Victor felt nauseated.
Ethan had been telling the truth.
Someone had followed them.
Victor’s phone rang.
Maya.
He answered.
“Mr. Hale?”
“How did you get this number?”
“Your office called me earlier about payroll.”
Victor remembered doubling her salary and nearly laughed at the absurdity.
“What do you want?”
“I received another envelope.”
Victor went still.
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“Don’t touch anything else.”
“Too late.”
“What’s inside?”
“A flash drive.”
Victor looked toward Raymond.
“Do not connect it to a computer.”
“I haven’t.”
“Anything else?”
“A note.”
“What does it say?”
Maya’s voice became quiet.
“Your brother wasn’t the target.”
Victor’s entire body stiffened.
“What?”
“It says, ‘Daniel saw what happened. Simone found out. Your brother wasn’t the target.’”
Victor looked at Adrian through the glass wall.
His younger brother sat in the library under guard.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor thought of Daniel’s disappearance.
“Stay inside. I’m sending security.”
“No.”
“This isn’t optional.”
“I don’t want your people.”
“Why?”
Silence.
“Maya.”
“My brother said someone inside your system was watching.”
Victor’s eyes moved to Raymond.
The security chief was studying another monitor.
“If Daniel was right, how do I know the people you send aren’t the problem?”
Victor had no answer.
Maya continued.
“I trust you more than your system.”
That was an extraordinarily low bar.
“Fine,” Victor said. “I’m coming.”
Raymond turned.
“You can’t leave now.”
Victor studied him.
“Why?”
“We have an active security incident.”
“That’s exactly why.”
He took his coat.
Raymond said, “At least take a driver.”
“No.”
Victor left.
Twenty-five minutes later he reached Maya’s modest apartment on Chicago’s South Side.
She opened the door holding the envelope with a dish towel.
“You said not to touch it.”
Victor looked at her.
“That is touching it.”
“I improvise.”
Despite himself, he almost smiled.
Inside, Maya placed the envelope on the kitchen table.
Victor read the note.
The handwriting was blocky, disguised.
DANIEL SAW WHAT HAPPENED. SIMONE FOUND OUT. YOUR BROTHER WASN’T THE TARGET. CHECK THE BOATHOUSE CAMERA.
Victor stared.
“What boathouse?”
Maya asked.
“You have one?”
Victor’s thoughts raced.
The Hale estate on Lake Michigan had an old boathouse at the northern edge of the property.
No one had used it since Simone died.
There was a camera there.
Independent.
Solar powered.
Installed after vandals damaged the dock.
Victor grabbed his phone.
He called Raymond.
“Pull the boathouse camera archive.”
Silence.
“Raymond?”
The security chief finally answered.
“That camera was decommissioned.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
Victor’s chest tightened.
“What date?”
Another silence.
“Raymond.”
“The morning after Simone’s accident.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“By whose order?”
Raymond answered softly.
“Yours.”
Victor opened them.
Maya watched him.
Victor had never issued that order either.
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Someone had been using his authority for years.
And the trail kept pointing toward decisions made immediately after the crash.
