Chapter 4 - The Camera Above the Crib
Mark returned home without his daughter.
Rosie’s cereal bowl still sat in the kitchen sink.
Her yellow rain boots waited beside the back door.
A picture she had drawn of herself, Mark, and Emily hung on the refrigerator.
Mark stood beneath it until anger became something colder.
Laura entered carrying two cups of coffee.
“You need to sleep.”
“My daughter is in that house.”
“And we will get her out.”
“Tomorrow is not soon enough.”
“I know.”
Mark walked toward Rosie’s bedroom.
He stopped in the doorway.
A white baby monitor camera remained mounted above the bookshelf.
Mark had installed it when Rosie began having nightmares after Emily’s death.
He had barely checked the application in months.
“Laura.”
She followed him inside.
“The camera records movement.”
“Where does it store the footage?”
“Online.”
Mark opened the application.
The password failed.
He tried again.
“Someone changed it.”
“Can your family access the account?”
“My mother helped set it up when Emily was alive.”
Laura moved closer.
“Use the recovery email.”
Mark requested a reset.
A message appeared.
RECOVERY LINK SENT TO [email protected].
Mark stared at the address.
“That belongs to my mother.”
Laura pulled out her phone.
“Do not contact her.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
Mark opened his laptop and searched his old emails.
Emily had once sent him the original monitor registration information.
He found the message buried beneath years of receipts and family photographs.
The account contained a secondary recovery code.
The application opened.
Hundreds of short recordings appeared.
Most showed Rosie sleeping.
Some showed Mark reading bedtime stories.
Then Mark saw a recording from six days earlier.
The camera had activated at four twenty-three in the afternoon.
Diane entered Rosie’s room.
Bethany followed behind her, dragging Rosie by the wrist.
Rosie cried quietly.
“I want my daddy.”
Bethany pushed her onto the bed.
“He is tired of your whining.”
Diane closed the bedroom door.
“Do it where the camera cannot see.”
Bethany looked directly toward the camera.
The video ended.
Mark stopped breathing.
Laura immediately copied the file.
“There may be more.”
They searched the recordings from that day.
A second clip began twenty-two minutes later.
Rosie sat alone on the floor.
Her hair was messy.
A red mark already covered one arm.
Diane stood over her.
“What will you tell your father?”
Rosie whispered.
“I fell.”
“And if you tell him something else?”
“You’ll make him go away.”
Diane crouched in front of her.
“Your father has a temper.”
“People with tempers go to jail.”
Rosie began crying.
“I want Mommy.”
Diane’s face hardened.
“Your mother is dead.”
“She cannot protect you.”
Mark slammed the laptop shut.
Laura grabbed his wrist.
“Do not destroy the evidence.”
Mark reopened it with shaking hands.
A third recording showed Bethany carrying Rosie from the room.
Diane remained behind.
She reached toward the camera.
The screen went black.
Laura copied all three files.
“This changes the custody hearing.”
“It should put them in handcuffs.”
“It may.”
Mark searched for footage from other dates.
Every recording involving Diane or Bethany had been deleted.
Only three clips had survived.
“Why did they miss these?”
“The camera did not upload them immediately.”
Mark looked at the weak wireless symbol.
“The router in Rosie’s room disconnects sometimes.”
“They thought they erased everything.”
A notification suddenly appeared.
NEW DEVICE SIGNED INTO YOUR ACCOUNT.
LOCATION: HALE ESTATE.
Diane had discovered they were inside the system.
The recordings began disappearing from the screen.
“They are deleting them.”
Laura held up her phone.
“I already sent copies to three locations.”
Mark’s phone rang.
It was his mother.
He answered.
Diane did not bother pretending.
“You have no idea what you are doing.”
“I know what you did to Rosie.”
“You saw a few seconds without context.”
“I heard you tell my daughter that her mother could not protect her.”
“You are emotional.”
“You should be afraid.”
Diane laughed softly.
“No, Mark.”
“You should.”
A muffled cry sounded through the phone.
Mark stood so quickly that the chair fell behind him.
“Is Rosie there?”
Diane did not answer.
“Let me talk to her.”
“You lost the right to make demands.”
Rosie cried again.
Then Mark heard Bethany’s voice in the background.
“Mom, she found the folder.”
The call ended.
Mark looked at Laura.
“What folder?”
Before Laura could answer, a photograph arrived on Mark’s phone.
It showed Rosie’s small hand holding a yellow file.
May you like
Across the front, Emily’s handwriting read:
FOR MARK, IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME.
