Chapter 4 - The Perfect GrandmotherBy morning, Evelyn had transformed the near-drowning into a tragedy in which she was almost as much a victim as Mia.
She cried.
She made breakfast nobody ate.
She called relatives.
She placed flowers beside Mia’s bed.
She told anyone who asked that the vest must have been defective.
Daniel watched her move through the mansion with controlled sorrow.
He remembered how convincing she had been at Alyssa’s funeral.
At the time, he had thought that was strength.
Now he wondered whether it had been practice.
Mia refused to go near the pool.
She stayed close to Cooper.
Wherever Mia walked, Cooper followed.
When Evelyn entered the room, Cooper moved between them.
“Daniel,” Evelyn said eventually, “you need to control that dog.”
Daniel looked up from his laptop.
“He’s never behaved this way with you before.”
“Exactly. Something is wrong.”
“With him?”
“With all of us.”
Evelyn sat across from Daniel.
“You’re tired.”
“I’m fine.”
“You were sleeping while Mia was outside.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The accusation.”
“I’m not accusing you.”
“You just did.”
Evelyn leaned forward.
“I’m worried about you.”
Daniel laughed once without humor.
“You left her alone in a pool.”
“She had a flotation vest.”
“A damaged flotation vest.”
“I didn’t damage it.”
“Then who did?”
Evelyn looked toward Cooper.
Daniel stared at her.
“You’re blaming the dog?”
“I’m saying we don’t know.”
Daniel stood.
“No.”
“Daniel—”
“No.”
He walked away.
That afternoon, Detective Cole returned with another officer.
She wanted photographs of the pool area and access to available security footage.
Daniel gave permission.
The mansion had eight exterior cameras.
The pool camera, however, showed nothing useful.
Its feed had stopped twenty-two minutes before Mia entered the water.
“Power failure?” Daniel asked.
The security technician shook his head.
“Doesn’t look like it.”
“What does it look like?”
“Manual disconnect.”
Daniel slowly turned toward Evelyn.
She stood in the doorway.
“You disconnected the camera?”
“No.”
“Who else was out here?”
“I don’t know.”
Cole looked at the camera wiring.
“Where is the recorder?”
“Utility room.”
They went inside.
The system logs showed that the pool camera had lost power at 2:11 p.m.
At 2:43, Grace called 911.
Daniel looked at the timeline.
At approximately 2:28, Cooper had been barking at him upstairs.
The dog had known something before anyone else.
Cole asked, “Do you have any other cameras?”
“No.”
Grace hesitated.
“Actually…”
Everyone looked at her.
“The pool company.”
Daniel frowned.
“What pool company?”
“The heater repair.”
She pointed toward the far side of the property.
“The technician told me they put a temporary work camera near the equipment enclosure because they were waiting on an expensive replacement pump.”
Daniel remembered.
A subcontractor had installed it three days earlier.
Evelyn’s face remained calm.
But one of her hands closed tightly around the strap of her handbag.
Detective Cole saw that too.
“Do you know the company name?” she asked.
Daniel did.
He called immediately.
A manager answered.
Daniel explained.
The man went quiet.
“Yes,” he finally said. “There was a temporary camera.”
“Can we get the footage?”
Another pause.
“There might be a problem.”
Daniel’s heart dropped.
“What problem?”
“Someone removed the camera yesterday afternoon.”
Daniel looked toward Evelyn.
“When?”
The manager checked.
“According to our equipment tracker, sometime before three.”
Daniel stared across the patio.
The camera was gone.
But whoever had taken it had made one mistake.
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The company used cloud backup whenever the device detected motion.
And somewhere, on a server Evelyn might not know existed, fragments of Sunday afternoon could still be waiting.
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