Chapter 8 - The first camera clip
Inside the car, Louisa shook under my coat.
I turned the heater high.
Called pediatric urgent care.
Then opened the camera app.
The first clip showed Lydia searching.
The second:
Walter arguing.
The third:
Heather alone in the family room the night before.
She approached the side table.
Looked toward the kitchen.
Picked up Lydia’s gold bracelet.
I stopped breathing.
Heather put it into her sweater pocket.
Then walked upstairs.
That was it.
No Louisa.
No accident.
No mystery.
Heather had taken it.
I watched again.
Then a later clip loaded.
Heather returned ten minutes afterward.
She stood near the bookshelf and whispered into her phone:
“If Louisa gets blamed, Joanna will finally take the hint and leave.”
I replayed that sentence.
Then another voice from the phone speaker:
“Don’t involve the kid.”
Heather answered:
May you like
“She’s already involved just by being here.”
That was the beginning of the larger secret.
