Chapter 8 - The Missing Minute.
Daniel Voss had worked beside Ethan for nine years.
He had attended Julia’s memorial service.
He had sent Noah a handwritten birthday card every year.
He was also one of the two people who reviewed large foundation payments before Ethan received the quarterly summaries.
Ethan called him immediately.
Daniel answered on the second ring.
“Ethan, I was about to call you.”
“Were you at my house last Tuesday morning?”
A pause followed.
“Yes.”
Rachel stood across the study, watching Ethan’s face.
“Why did you come through the service gate?”
“Margaret asked me to pick up archived invoices.”
“At ten in the morning?”
“I had a meeting nearby.”
“Did you disable my cameras?”
Daniel’s voice changed.
“What?”
“Did you disable the foyer cameras?”
“No.”
“Did you see Noah?”
“No.”
“Did you see Anna?”
“I don’t know who Anna is.”
Ethan ended the call.
Marcus entered with a laptop before anyone could speak.
“I recovered something else.”
The security system kept two layers of logs.
The visible log showed that the foyer cameras were disabled for eight minutes.
The deeper diagnostic log showed exactly how.
A master administrator account had issued the command at 10:17:03.
The same account had restored the cameras at 10:25:11.
The username belonged to Marcus.
Rachel looked at him.
Marcus did not flinch.
“That account was cloned.”
“Can you prove it?” Ethan asked.
“I can prove the command came from the west security panel, not my tablet.”
The west panel was inside the locked cleaning closet.
The red access key had opened that closet one minute before the cameras went dark.
Margaret’s claim that Leah had the key at the time was already contradicted by Leah.
But the log contained another detail.
At 10:18, the west service door opened.
Daniel Voss had been inside the estate.
The timeline was tightening around two people.
Anna returned that afternoon at Ethan’s request, not as Noah’s caregiver, but as a witness to the foyer incident.
She brought no suitcase.
Noah saw her from the library and smiled before he remembered he was supposed to be cautious.
Anna smiled back and waited.
He walked to her on his own.
“Can I hold your hand?” he asked.
“Yes.”
It was the first time he had asked the question himself.
Ethan watched from the doorway and understood something that made him even angrier at the false rules.
Consent had never required distance.
It required choice.
In the study, Anna described the moments before the statue fell.
She had rolled the bucket into the foyer.
Noah had appeared near the hallway.
A metallic sound came from behind the bronze horse.
Then the statue tipped.
Anna lunged forward to stop it from striking the floor.
The edge scraped her cheek as she moved.
The bucket overturned beneath her foot.
Noah cried out.
Anna never touched him.
“Did you see anyone?” Rachel asked.
Anna closed her eyes, replaying the memory.
“Not a face.”
“Anything else?”
“A sleeve.”
“What color?”
“Dark gray.”
Margaret had worn gray that morning.
So had Daniel Voss.
The detail proved nothing.
Then Noah appeared in the doorway holding his drawing.
He pointed to the silver bracelet on the third figure.
“Mrs. Vale was there.”
Ethan crouched.
“Did you see Mr. Voss too?”
Noah shook his head.
“Did you hear him?”
Noah thought for a long time.
Then he whispered.
“He said, ‘Just one minute.’”
Rachel frowned.
“Who said that?”
Noah pointed toward the service hall.
“The man behind the door.”
Marcus immediately checked the recovered audio diagnostics from the security panel.
The cameras had no microphones, but the panel recorded system prompts.
Between two electronic chimes was a faint human voice.
Marcus amplified it.
Four words emerged through the static.
May you like
“Just give me one minute.”
Ethan recognized Daniel Voss instantly.
