Chapter 5
Mara requested the old mansion security archives.
Most garden footage from the night Celia vanished had been overwritten or “lost during system maintenance.”
That maintenance request came from Althea’s office.
But one camera had been overlooked.
A service camera facing the greenhouse door.
It did not show the kennel.
It showed movement.
Celia crossing the path carrying Posie.
Althea following.
A man from Althea’s private security team appearing from the side gate.
Then Celia stepping out of frame.
After that, no Celia.
No footage of her leaving through the front drive.
No footage of her car departing.
Her car was found twelve miles away the next morning near the river road.
Keys inside.
Phone inside.
No body.
No blood.
No confirmed witness.
The old police theory remained possible:
Celia left on foot or was picked up.
But the timeline no longer matched Althea’s story.
Then Mara found the email.
Sent from Celia’s account at 11:47 p.m. the night she vanished.
To Rourke.
I am sorry. I cannot be a mother inside this house. Do not look for me.
Rourke had read that sentence a thousand times.
It had destroyed him.
Forensic review now showed the email was sent from a desktop inside the mansion office.
Not Celia’s phone.
Not a device she carried.
The office login used Althea’s administrative credentials thirteen minutes before the email went out.
Althea’s lawyer said the mansion system had shared access.
True.
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But the third clue had teeth.
The goodbye letter that convinced Rourke Celia abandoned Posie may have been written from the house after Celia was already gone.
