Chapter 6 - The Camera in the Basement
The message contained no words.
Only the photograph.
I enlarged it.
Leo looked smaller.
His hair was longer.
He wore the same faded blue shirt I had found in his room.
Behind him was a shelf of wine bottles.
I recognized the basement immediately.
“What is this?” Eleanor asked.
“Someone was recording.”
We traced the number.
Prepaid.
No subscriber.
The image metadata was stripped.
But whoever sent it wanted me to know evidence existed.
I called the former housekeeper.
Maria Santos had worked for us before I left for Singapore.
Dominic told me she quit eighteen months ago.
Her phone number was disconnected.
Eleanor’s investigator found her living with her sister in Worcester.
We drove there.
When Maria opened the door and saw me, she started crying.
That told me enough.
“Mrs. Sterling.”
“What happened to my son?”
She covered her mouth.
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“I tried to help him.”
I stepped inside.
Maria explained that everything changed gradually.
Brooke began staying overnight while I was still in Singapore.
At first, Victoria called it temporary.
Then Liam’s toys appeared.
Brooke’s clothes moved into the master bedroom.
Dominic stopped video calls whenever Leo was nearby.
I remembered.
He always said Leo was asleep.
At preschool.
With Victoria.
Sick.
Maria continued.
“Mrs. Victoria started telling Leo he was difficult.”
“She said Liam was the good boy.”
“If Leo cried, she made him sit on the floor.”
“If he reached for food before Liam, she took his plate away.”
My hands shook.
“Dominic?”
Maria looked ashamed for him.
“He saw.”
“He said his mother knew how to handle children.”
I closed my eyes.
“Why did you leave?”
“I didn’t.”
She looked at me.
“They fired me.”
“Why?”
“Because I recorded them.”
My eyes opened.
Maria walked into the bedroom.
She returned with a small external drive.
“I thought somebody would need it.”
The basement camera belonged to an old security system.
Dominic believed it had been disconnected.
Maria discovered it still uploaded clips to a local recorder.
She copied several files before Brooke caught her.
“They threatened to report me for theft.”
“Victoria said no family would hire me again.”
I took the drive.
“How much is on here?”
“Not enough.”
“What does that mean?”
Maria looked terrified.
“The worst things happened after they fired me.”
I swallowed.
“But there is one recording you need to see.”
We connected the drive.
The video opened.
Victoria stood in the basement.
Brooke stood beside her.
Leo sat against the wall.
Victoria pointed toward him.
Then she said something that made Eleanor immediately reach for her legal pad.
“If Clara comes home and sees him like this, we tell her the boy became unstable because she abandoned him.”
Brooke laughed.
“And Dominic?”
May you like
Victoria smiled.
“My son will say whatever keeps the company.”
