Chapter 6 - The Camera That Lied.
Adrian replayed the analog recording three times.
Victor Lang's face never appeared.
His voice did.
That was enough to make Adrian feel as if the villa had shifted beneath him again.
Victor had handled Adrian's father's estate.
Victor had sat beside the family at the funeral.
Victor had advised Adrian through every major business decision of the last five years.
He had also been the person who insisted the Vale Foundation's accounts were clean.
Cole paused the recording at the moment the dark sleeve entered the frame.
"Gold watch."
Adrian nodded.
Victor wore one every day.
It had been a retirement gift from Adrian's father.
"That doesn't prove the person is Victor."
Cole looked at him.
"The voice does a lot of work."
"Not enough."
Adrian hated saying it, but he knew what happened when anger arrived before evidence.
Someone had already forged his signature and manipulated security records.
He would not give them an easier story by making accusations he could not support.
Cole checked the back of the analog camera.
"This recording has no network connection."
"Can it be edited?"
"Anything can be edited."
"Can this one be edited without leaving signs?"
Cole studied the file structure.
"Not easily."
Adrian took the device.
"Then it stays with me."
A burst of radio traffic broke the silence.
Jonah's voice came through first.
"Garage situation changed."
"Talk to me."
"Celeste abandoned the car."
"Nolan?"
"Still in the garage."
"Where is Celeste?"
A pause.
"Missing."
Adrian stared at Cole.
"How does a sixty-year-old woman disappear from a locked garage?"
Cole was already moving toward the door.
"Same way Claire ended up beneath a marble floor."
"Another hidden route."
"Exactly."
They returned to the foyer.
Claire stood beside the open hatch wearing Adrian's jacket over her dusty blouse.
Sophie sat on the lowest stair with Jonah's phone, watching a cartoon with the volume muted.
The strange normality of it made the scene more unsettling.
Nolan entered from the garage with both hands raised.
Jonah followed two steps behind.
Adrian faced the security chief.
"Why were you in Celeste's car?"
Nolan looked tired rather than nervous.
"Because she tried to leave."
"And you helped her?"
"No."
"The video shows you in the passenger seat."
Nolan gave a humorless laugh.
"The live video also says you disabled eighteen minutes of cameras."
Adrian said nothing.
Nolan continued.
"She pulled a compact alarm transmitter from her robe."
"I tried to take it."
"She ran for the garage."
"I got into the car because the driver's door was locked and I was trying to stop her from opening the outer gate."
Cole folded his arms.
"Why not call us?"
"Because my radio went dead the moment I entered the elevator."
Adrian looked at Cole.
Cole checked the channel log.
"There was a twelve-second interruption."
Nolan pointed toward the security cameras.
"Somebody is editing what you see almost in real time."
Claire walked closer.
"Then why did you tell Celeste the plan had changed yesterday?"
Nolan looked at her.
"Because she told me the meeting was private and authorized by Adrian."
"When I realized there was another person in the room, I knew she had lied."
Claire's face remained hard.
"You still left."
"No."
"I heard the door."
"You heard me open it."
Nolan reached into his jacket slowly.
Jonah's hand moved toward his own coat.
Nolan stopped.
"It's a phone."
Adrian nodded once.
Nolan took it out and opened an audio file.
"I started recording before I stepped into that room."
The file played.
Claire's voice came first.
Then Celeste's.
Then Victor Lang's.
This time there was no doubt.
"Get the signature, Celeste."
"We don't need her comfortable."
Claire closed her eyes.
Nolan's recorded voice answered.
"I'm not part of this."
Victor laughed.
"You became part of it the moment you followed orders."
The audio ended with a door opening and hurried footsteps.
Nolan looked at Adrian.
"I went to the control room to call you directly."
"My access was revoked before I got there."
Cole checked the security system again.
"His credentials were suspended at 4:18 yesterday."
Adrian's anger changed direction.
"Who had authority to suspend him?"
Cole looked at the screen.
"You."
Adrian almost laughed.
"Of course."
Nolan stepped closer.
"They're not just framing you for Claire."
"They're making it look like you controlled every move."
A new alert appeared on Cole's tablet.
He frowned.
"External upload detected."
"From where?"
"The villa network."
"Uploading what?"
Cole opened the traffic monitor.
A large video file was being sent to an outside server.
He intercepted the thumbnail.
It showed Adrian standing beside the open floor hatch.
The angle made it look as if he had just discovered something he already knew about.
A caption had been embedded beneath the image.
VALE HEIR'S SECRET ROOM EXPOSED.
Claire stared at the screen.
"They're going public."
Adrian looked toward every camera in the foyer.
"Then we stop looking at their story."
He reached up and pulled the nearest camera cable from the wall.
"From now on, we trust what we can touch."
May you like
Behind them, Sophie quietly lifted her stuffed rabbit.
A tiny red light was blinking inside one of its button eyes.
