Chapter 10 - THE STUDY VIDEO
Roberto watched the video with Harris and Claire.
The camera faced the study doorway. Sofía entered slowly, one hand trailing along the wall. She stopped where a low chair usually stood. It was gone. She reached forward and took another step.
A sharp crash sounded as she struck the moved desk.
María rushed in from the hall. Vanessa followed several seconds later.
“Why did you move it?” María demanded.
Vanessa looked toward the camera. “I didn’t.”
The video ended there.
Roberto pressed his palm against the table. “Where did this come from?”
“Vanessa says Adrian installed the camera without her knowledge,” Harris replied. “She says he wanted footage showing Sofía couldn’t safely move around the house.”
“But it shows the furniture was moved,” Claire said.
“Yes.”
“Who moved it?”
Harris had another clip. Taken an hour earlier, it showed Vanessa dragging the chair out of Sofía’s path and shifting the desk.
For a moment Roberto couldn’t speak.
Vanessa had known Sofía would enter the study after her lesson. She had moved the furniture and then blamed the child for falling.
“Why give you this?” he asked.
“Adrian kept a copy,” Harris said. “He threatened to release it if Vanessa stopped helping him. She gave us hers after we found his car.”
“She’s trying to save herself.”
“She is. The video is still evidence.”
Harris explained that Vanessa had admitted to forging the documents with Adrian. She denied ever intending to harm Sofía. Roberto heard the denial without believing it.
He drove home before Sofía finished her lesson. She was in the music room, pressing piano keys one at a time while her tutor described the notes.
When the lesson ended, Roberto asked whether she wanted to walk in the garden. Sofía agreed. María came with them.
At the rose beds, Sofía reached for the leaves. “Is this where Mom’s yellow roses are?”
“Yes,” Roberto said. “They’re starting to bloom.”
Sofía smiled and held out her hand for a flower. Roberto guided her fingers toward one.
A police car pulled up at the front gate.
Harris got out alone. Roberto went to meet her while María stayed with Sofía.
“We found Adrian,” Harris said.
“Where?”
“In the hospital. Someone hit his car last night and left.”
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“Can he talk?”
“He did.” Harris’s expression tightened. “He says Vanessa gave him the video. He also says the forged trust papers were her idea.”
