Chapter 3 - Three Minutes Missing
Thomas replayed the timeline until sunrise.
He had entered the house at approximately four twenty-two.
He had called for help at four twenty-three.
At four twenty-six, someone using his home network had logged into the camera account and deleted the afternoon footage.
By four twenty-eight, the first emergency vehicle was pulling onto the street.
Three minutes.
Someone had either been hiding in the house while Thomas called for help or had remote access from a device already connected to his network.
Neither possibility made him feel safer.
Detective Ortiz arranged for an officer to accompany him home the next morning so he could collect clothes and medication.
Thomas expected the kitchen to look different after being processed overnight.
It did not.
That was somehow worse.
Yellow evidence markers stood beside ordinary objects.
The fallen blue cup was gone.
The pitcher was gone.
A chair had been pulled away from the table.
Eli's backpack still hung from its hook beside the pantry.
Thomas looked at it and had to turn away.
"Take what you need," the officer said.
"Don't touch anything in the kitchen."
Thomas went upstairs.
Megan's side of the bed was unmade.
Her reading glasses rested on the nightstand beside a paperback with a folded receipt marking her place.
He picked up a clean sweatshirt and stopped.
The closet door was open.
Thomas always closed it because the hinge squeaked when the air conditioning came on.
Megan teased him about it.
Now it stood six inches ajar.
He called the officer.
They checked the closet together.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
Then Thomas noticed the small metal lockbox on the top shelf.
It belonged to Megan.
He had seen it hundreds of times and never asked what she kept inside.
The lid was open.
"Was that normally locked?" the officer asked.
"I think so."
"Do you know what's in it?"
"No."
The officer photographed it and called Ortiz.
Ten minutes later, Thomas was told to leave the bedroom.
He went downstairs and waited in the front hall.
Across the street, their neighbor Marissa Gray stood at her mailbox watching the house.
When Thomas looked at her, she immediately turned away.
That was strange.
Marissa had lived across the street for six years.
She and Megan traded school pickups, borrowed groceries, and sat together during neighborhood meetings.
Thomas stepped outside.
"Marissa."
She froze beside the mailbox.
"Are they okay?" she asked.
"Eli's awake."
"Megan isn't."
Marissa covered her mouth.
"I'm so sorry."
Thomas walked closer.
"Did you see anyone at our house yesterday?"
Her eyes shifted toward the police cruiser.
"No."
The answer came too quickly.
"Marissa."
"I said no."
She started toward her front door.
Thomas followed to the edge of her driveway.
"Our camera footage was deleted."
Marissa stopped.
"That's awful."
"You have a camera facing the street."
She looked back at him.
"It doesn't catch your front door."
"It catches our driveway."
"Thomas, you need to let the police handle this."
"Did you see Judith?"
Marissa's face changed so slightly that most people would have missed it.
Thomas did not.
"Why would you ask me that?" she said.
"Because Eli remembers her being there."
Marissa went pale.
Then she lowered her voice.
"You didn't hear this from me."
Thomas stepped closer.
"Hear what?"
"I saw Judith's car."
His heart started pounding.
"What time?"
"A little after one."
"Did you see her leave?"
"Yes."
"When?"
Marissa looked toward Thomas's house.
"Around three-fifty."
That meant Judith had been inside for nearly three hours.
"Why did you tell me you saw no one?"
Marissa's eyes filled with fear.
"Because somebody came to my door last night."
Thomas said nothing.
"A man."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"He didn't threaten me exactly."
"He just said it would be unfortunate if neighborhood gossip confused a serious investigation."
Thomas felt cold anger replace panic.
"Did your camera record him?"
Marissa nodded.
"And Judith's car?"
Another nod.
"Then give it to Ortiz."
Marissa looked close to tears.
"I have two kids."
"So do the right thing for mine."
The words came out harsher than Thomas intended.
Marissa flinched.
"I'm sorry."
Thomas rubbed his face.
"I'm sorry too."
"But someone hurt my family and then came back to erase the record."
Marissa stared at him for several seconds.
Then she went inside.
Thomas assumed the conversation was over.
Five minutes later, she returned carrying a small memory card in a plastic sandwich bag.
"This is a copy," she said.
"I made it before I deleted the clip from my system."
Thomas did not take it.
"Give it to the detective."
Marissa nodded.
"There's something else."
"What?"
"Judith wasn't alone when she left."
Thomas's stomach tightened.
"Who was with her?"
"I couldn't see his face."
"He got into a dark green pickup parked down the block."
"Then Judith drove away in the opposite direction."
Thomas thought of everyone he knew with a green truck.
One name arrived immediately.
Nathan Cole.
Nathan had been Megan's late father's financial adviser.
He had handled Judith's accounts for years.
He had also been the man who helped Thomas refinance his company when the business nearly failed three years earlier.
Thomas called Ortiz before he could talk himself out of it.
She arrived at Marissa's house twenty minutes later.
The memory card showed exactly what Marissa described.
Judith's silver SUV entered the frame at one-seventeen.
At three-forty-eight, it pulled away.
Thirty seconds later, a dark green pickup rolled slowly past.
The driver kept his face turned away from the camera.
But one detail was visible through the windshield.
A white square parking permit hung from the rearview mirror.
Thomas knew that permit.
Nathan Cole's office building required one.
Ortiz paused the video.
"How sure are you?"
"Very."
She looked at him.
"That's not the same as proof."
Thomas pointed at the screen.
"Then go get proof."
Ortiz's phone rang before she could answer.
She listened for less than a minute.
Her expression changed.
"What?" Thomas asked.
Ortiz ended the call.
"Your wife's lockbox contained financial records."
Thomas waited.
"Somebody removed most of them."
"How do you know?"
"Because there was a handwritten inventory taped inside the lid."
Ortiz looked down at her notes.
"According to that list, one item is still missing."
"A second phone."
May you like
Thomas stared at her.
Megan had never told him she owned a second phone.
