“Ms. Carter?”
“This is Detective Nathan Reyes with LAPD. We’re reviewing the Harrington theft case. Could you come in to give a statement?”
Fear coiled in her stomach. “Yes, sir. I have nothing to hide.”
At the station, Reyes studied her carefully—not like a suspect, but like someone trying to solve a riddle.
“You’ve worked for them for years?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Any debt? Money problems?”
Lena met his eyes. “I’m a single mom in Los Angeles, Detective. Bills are hard. But I don’t steal.”
He nodded slowly. “We’ll look into everything.”
That same evening, Madeline sat alone in the office, anger still simmering. Charles was out of town, telling her to “handle the situation.”
She poured a glass of wine and walked toward the new nursery camera he’d installed—working perfectly.
A notification flashed on her tablet:
Storage full. Recent recordings uploaded to cloud backup.
Curious, she opened the cloud folder.
One video stood out:
PetCam_04.mp4
She clicked it.
The footage showed Lena vacuuming the hallway, humming softly. Then Charles appeared, a white envelope in his hand. He checked over his shoulder before slipping into the office.