Chapter 5 - The Man in the Video
Police identified him within a day.
Derek Sloan.
Forty-two.
Independent smart-home technician.
Licensed low-voltage installer.
No criminal record.
Married.
Two children.
Not Chloe’s lover.
He had been inside my house seven times.
I had authorized none of those visits.
Derek cooperated almost immediately.
He believed Chloe was the homeowner responsible for managing an elderly relative with:
“wandering behavior.”
That was how she described my mother.
She asked him to install:
An exterior-controlled smart lock on Eleanor’s bedroom.
Additional motion sensors.
Two concealed cameras.
A secondary administrator profile.
Remote automation rules.
And selective notification routing.
Derek said he questioned the bedroom lock.
Chloe told him Eleanor:
“wanders into dangerous areas at night.”
He recommended a door alarm instead.
Chloe insisted.
That mattered.
He installed the lock anyway.
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He later regretted it.
Professional judgment does not disappear because a client is persuasive.
