Chapter 10 - The Missing Minute Returns.
Martin Vale had believed information was valuable only when someone was afraid of it.
That belief had made him useful to Celeste and careless with everyone else.
According to Reese, Vale had secretly kept copies of nearly everything Celeste paid him to collect.
He called it insurance.
The police called it evidence.
At ten the next morning, Reese returned to Whitmore House with a laptop and a sealed digital drive.
He asked everyone to gather in the library.
Celeste refused at first.
Then she realized refusing would look worse than attending.
She took the chair farthest from Evelyn.
Lillian stood beside the fireplace.
Daniel sat near his wife.
Reese placed the laptop on the coffee table.
"Vale's drive contained a remote-access program tied to this home's security system."
Lillian stared at him.
"He could see our cameras?"
"Some of them."
"How?"
"The security contractor received a payment to create a temporary service credential."
Daniel looked furious.
"From Celeste?"
Reese answered carefully.
"The payment came through one of the consulting accounts connected to the foundation transfers."
Celeste leaned forward.
"That still doesn't prove I authorized it."
"No," Reese said.
"But this helps."
He opened an audio file.
Vale's voice came through first.
"The camera will stay off for eleven minutes."
Then Celeste's voice answered.
"That is enough."
No one moved.
Celeste's face became expressionless.
The recording continued.
Vale asked, "What exactly are you doing up there?"
Celeste replied, "Talking."
Vale laughed.
"Then why kill the camera?"
There was a pause.
Celeste's voice returned colder.
"Because I need her to understand there are places in that house where no one will believe her."
Evelyn felt Daniel's hand tighten around hers.
Lillian closed her eyes.
Reese stopped the file.
"That conversation occurred at 6:12 p.m. on the night of the fall."
Celeste stood.
"I want an attorney."
Reese nodded.
"You are entitled to one."
"Then stop playing recordings."
"I will stop asking you questions."
Reese looked at Daniel and Lillian.
"The rest of you can still hear what was recovered."
Celeste glared at him.
"You think this proves I pushed her?"
Reese did not answer the question directly.
"It proves the camera outage was planned."
"By someone."
"With your voice on the planning call."
Celeste's confidence finally cracked.
She turned toward Evelyn.
"You wanted this."
Evelyn stared at her.
"I wanted you to stop."
"No."
Celeste stepped closer until an officer moved between them.
"You wanted everyone to see me as a monster so you could take my place in this family."
Evelyn almost laughed at the absurdity.
"Your place was never mine to take."
"Daniel was mine before you arrived."
The room became silent.
Daniel stood.
"I was never yours."
The sentence landed harder than shouting would have.
Celeste looked at him as if he had betrayed a promise he had never made.
Reese closed the laptop.
"There is one more problem for you."
Celeste turned back.
"The anonymous video posted last night contained a frame that was never publicly available."
Evelyn understood the mistake she had noticed.
The clip showed the exact moment her phone left her cardigan.
That angle came from the foyer camera's uncompressed archive, not the family viewing app.
Only an administrator export could contain it.
Reese continued.
"The export was created at 8:03 p.m. from a device connected to the mansion's guest network."
Celeste's eyes shifted toward the hallway.
"Your laptop was on that network," Reese said.
"So were several others."
"True."
He opened a printed log.
"But only one device used the export token."
He placed the page on the table.
CELESTE-MACBOOK.
Lillian stared at the name.
Celeste said nothing.
Reese picked up the laptop again.
"Vale's drive also contained a second video."
Daniel frowned.
"From the staircase?"
"Not exactly."
Reese clicked the file.
The screen showed a narrow view through the upstairs gallery mirror.
It had been captured by a tiny camera Vale had installed days earlier to watch Lillian's study door.
In the reflected background, the top of the staircase was visible.
Evelyn appeared first.
Celeste stepped toward her.
Lillian entered the edge of the reflection.
Then Celeste raised both hands.
Reese paused the image one frame before contact.
May you like
No one in the room breathed.
"The next second," he said, "is the part she thought nobody had."
