Chapter 4: The Camera Across the Street
Violet stabilized shortly before midnight.
The doctors placed her in a medically induced coma to protect her brain. They could not tell us when she would wake again.
Harper remained at the hospital.
I returned to Maple Drive.
Two patrol cars stood outside the house. Yellow tape crossed the front porch.
Detective Grant had left a uniformed officer near the door, but the officer was asleep inside his cruiser.
I entered through the garage.
The house still carried the smell of blood.
I forced myself not to look toward the hallway.
Instead, I went upstairs.
Harper had mentioned a metal case in the attic. Daniel believed something was hidden there.
I found no case.
But in Violet’s bedroom, I noticed an old military watch on her desk.
It had belonged to me during Ashfall.
The crystal was scratched. The leather strap had been removed, and several repair tools lay beside it.
A birthday card sat nearby.
For Dad.
Violet had been repairing the watch as a gift.
I turned it over.
The back plate had been opened.
Inside the empty battery compartment was a narrow rectangular space that should not have existed.
Something had been hidden there.
Something small.
A memory card.
I heard a floorboard creak behind me.
I spun.
Mr. Lawson, our elderly neighbor, stood in the doorway with both hands raised.
“Sorry,” he whispered. “The garage was open.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I thought you should see this before the police take it.”
He held out a tablet.
Mr. Lawson had installed a doorbell camera after packages began disappearing from his porch. It faced part of our driveway.
The recording showed a black SUV stopping beside our mailbox at 3:14 p.m.
Daniel stepped out.
Two men followed him.
One wore a baseball cap. The other carried a black tool bag.
Daniel approached the front door.
At 3:15, the door opened without resistance.
All three entered.
At 3:29, the man with the cap came running out.
Blood marked the front of his shirt.
The second man followed carrying Violet’s backpack.
Daniel emerged last.
He turned toward the house as though he wanted to go back.
Then another vehicle appeared at the end of the block.
Daniel climbed into the SUV, and they drove away.
I paused the video.
The second vehicle was an unmarked brown sedan.
It stopped outside my house for twelve seconds.
The driver never got out.
The license plate was hidden, but I recognized the dent near the left taillight.
I had seen the same car in the hospital parking lot.
It belonged to Detective Grant.
Before I could replay the footage, headlights swept across Violet’s bedroom wall.
A vehicle had pulled into my driveway.
Mr. Lawson looked through the curtains.
“It’s the detective.”
Grant stepped out of his sedan and headed toward the house.
May you like
He was not alone.
Daniel Reese climbed out of the passenger side.
