Chapter 3 - The Camera Across the Fence.
Mark and Emily were at Nora Bennett's house twelve minutes later.
Sophie stayed with Mark's older sister, Diane, who lived two streets away and arrived wearing house slippers because Mark had told her only that it was urgent.
Nora's security monitor sat in a cramped home office beside stacks of gardening magazines.
"My camera isn't pointed at their yard," Nora said.
"It's pointed at my driveway."
She clicked the playback bar.
"But the edge of Patricia's patio shows through the fence gap."
The image was grainy but clear enough to make out movement.
At 3:41 p.m., guests moved between the patio and lawn.
At 3:43, Ryan walked toward the side gate carrying a cooler.
At 3:44, Patricia crossed behind the dessert table.
At 3:45, a figure in a light-colored top stepped beneath the patio camera.
The person's face was hidden by a hanging lantern.
One arm reached upward.
The white camera cable dropped.
Emily leaned closer to the monitor.
"Can you zoom in?"
Nora did.
The image became larger and less useful.
All they could see was a forearm, a pale sleeve, and a silver bracelet.
Emily immediately thought of Patricia.
Patricia had worn a pale aqua blouse.
She had also worn a bracelet.
But so had two other women at the party.
Nora continued the video.
The figure walked out of frame.
Four minutes later, Mark sprinted across the narrow visible slice of lawn.
Then people gathered near the fire pit.
"That's it," Nora said.
Mark crossed his arms.
"Can you copy the original file?"
"Already did."
Nora handed him a small memory card.
"I made two copies."
Emily looked at her.
"Why two?"
Nora gave a dry smile.
"Because I watch television."
For the first time since the party, Emily almost laughed.
The feeling disappeared when her phone rang.
Ryan.
She let it ring.
It rang again.
Mark nodded toward the screen.
"Answer."
Emily put the call on speaker.
"Hello?"
Ryan did not bother with a greeting.
"Did you go to Nora's?"
Emily looked at Mark.
Neither of them spoke for a second.
"Why would you ask that?"
Ryan exhaled sharply.
"Mom saw Mark's truck."
Nora's house was behind Patricia's property but not visible from Patricia's front windows.
Mark's truck was parked inside Nora's driveway behind a tall hedge.
Emily's skin prickled.
"Your mom saw Dad's truck through a hedge?"
Silence.
"That's not the point."
"Then what is?"
"The point is that you're turning one accident into a criminal investigation."
"Someone unplugged the camera."
Another silence.
This one was longer.
"What camera?"
Emily's eyes narrowed.
"You tell me."
Ryan's voice hardened.
"Emily, come home."
"Not tonight."
"You can't just keep Sophie from me."
"You can come see her at Dad's."
"With Mark staring at me?"
"If that's your biggest problem tonight, you're doing better than I am."
Ryan lowered his voice.
"Mom thinks you're spiraling."
The phrase was so practiced that Emily almost missed how strange it was.
"What does that mean?"
"It means you haven't slept."
"Neither have you."
"It means you're saying someone intentionally sent our baby toward a fire because a camera cable came loose."
Emily looked at the screen.
"I didn't say intentionally."
Ryan stopped breathing for half a beat.
Mark noticed too.
Emily continued.
"You said that."
"Come on."
"Why did you say intentionally?"
"Because that's clearly what you're implying."
"Maybe."
Ryan cursed under his breath.
"This is ridiculous."
"Then help me figure out what happened."
"I am trying to protect our family."
"From what?"
He hung up.
Nora leaned back in her chair.
"Well, that was comforting."
Mark copied the camera file onto his laptop.
He also emailed a copy to himself.
Then he asked Nora to preserve the original recording.
On the walk back to his truck, Emily noticed a black SUV idling at the corner.
The windows were dark.
As soon as Mark turned toward it, the vehicle pulled away.
"Did you see that?"
"Yeah."
"Do you know it?"
"No."
Mark wrote down the plate number from memory.
Back at his house, Diane sat on the couch holding Sophie and watching an old cooking show at low volume.
She looked at Emily carefully.
"Your face says the day got worse."
Emily sat beside her.
"Someone unplugged the patio camera."
Diane's eyes sharpened.
"Before the stroller moved?"
"Yes."
Diane looked down at Sophie.
"Then nobody gets to call this nothing."
Mark entered from the garage holding a clear plastic evidence bag.
Inside was a tiny silver object.
"I found this under the stroller brake housing."
Emily stood.
It was a broken tip from a small flat-head screwdriver.
Fresh metal gleamed along the snapped edge.
"Could that have released the brake?"
Mark nodded.
"If someone wedged it in the right place."
Diane stared at him.
"Who brings a screwdriver to a garden party?"
Emily immediately remembered the folding dessert table.
Patricia had complained that one leg was loose.
Ryan had gone into the garage for a tool kit.
He had returned carrying a red-handled screwdriver.
Emily whispered his name.
"Ryan."
Mark did not answer.
Emily's phone vibrated with a text from an unknown number.
She opened it.
Stop digging into something you don't understand.
A second message arrived before she could move.
May you like
The baby is safe.
Be grateful.
