Chapter 3 - The Shadow in Frame 104
The quiet pediatric ward seemed to freeze in time. The steady rhythmic beep of the heart monitor attached to Noah was the only sound breaking the sudden, terrifying silence.
Daniel sat rigid in his chair, his mind racing backward two agonizing years to the stormy night his first wife, Eleanor Vance, was found drowned in the mansion's outdoor infinity pool.
At the time, the police investigation had concluded that Eleanor had taken a powerful sedative prescribed for her chronic insomnia, slipped on the wet deck during a heavy rainstorm, hit her head against the stone coping, and fallen unconscious into the water. It was ruled a heartbreaking accidental death. Daniel had spent two years drowning in guilt, believing he should have been home that night instead of working late at his firm's corporate headquarters downtown.
Now, looking into his bruised son's frightened eyes, every foundation of that painful memory crumbled.
"Noah," Daniel said, his voice barely a breath, terrified that any sharp sound might shatter the boy's fragile memory. "Tell me again. Are you completely sure? The man with the scar on his face?"
Noah nodded slowly, a single tear running down his small cheek into his bandaged temple. "He... he came into Mommy's bedroom that night. I was hiding under my blanket with my flashlight. Mommy was arguing with him... she was screaming at him to give back her notebook. Then he pulled her out to the balcony."
Maya stepped forward from the corner of the room, her eyes wide with shock. "Mr. Vance... Noah was only four years old when Mrs. Eleanor passed away. Everyone assumed he was asleep in his room the whole night."
Daniel placed both hands over his face, his breathing ragged. He remembered that night with horrifying clarity. When he had rushed home after receiving the call from the security company, Eleanor was already covered under a yellow sheet by the poolside. Lauren, who at the time was Eleanor's personal assistant and close friend, had been the one to find the body and call 911.
"Maya," Daniel said, suddenly looking up with eyes filled with cold determination. "Stay here with Noah. Do not leave this room under any circumstances. If Lauren or anyone else comes to this door, call Arthur immediately."
"I won't leave his side, Mr. Vance," Maya promised firmly.
Daniel stood up and strode out of the hospital room, pulling his phone from his coat pocket. He called Arthur before he even reached the elevator bank.
"Arthur, I need you at the house right now," Daniel commanded into the receiver. "We are going back into the raw server archives. I want every single video file from the night Eleanor died, July 14, 2024. Extract everything from the cold storage hard drives."
"Mr. Vance," Arthur's voice came through the speaker, low and guarded. "Those archives were backed up onto an offline server tower in your private study after the police wrapped up their investigation. But sir... Lauren requested those drives from me three months ago, claiming you wanted them audited for tax purposes."
Daniel stopped dead in his tracks outside the elevator doors. The grip on his phone tightened until his knuckles turned ghost-white. "She took the drives?"
"Yes, sir. I handed them directly to her."
"Search the house," Daniel growled. "Find those drives before she realizes what we're looking for."
Back at Vance Manor, the heavy rain had begun to pelt against the tall stained-glass windows of the main dining hall. Lauren Vance was standing at the bar, pouring her second glass of scotch. Her hands were shaking so violently that the glass bottle clinked against the crystal tumbler.
Her phone buzzed on the dark mahogany counter. She snatched it up instantly.
"What is it?" she hissed into the receiver, her voice dropped to a tense whisper.
"You panicked," a deep, raspy voice answered from the other end. "Wiping forty-seven seconds off the local node was sloppy, Lauren. You left a artifact frame in the buffer."
Lauren gripped the marble edge of the bar, her eyes darting nervously toward the empty hallway. "He fell! The little brat was going to tell Daniel about the financial ledger I took from the desk! I had no choice!"
"You always have a choice," the raspy voice replied coldly. "Now Daniel is digging into the archives. The kid saw my reflection. If Daniel links me to Eleanor's night, both of us are going to spend the rest of our lives in a maximum-security state penitentiary."
"What do I do?" Lauren whimpered, tears of panic finally breaking through her calculated exterior. "He put security outside the kid's hospital room. Arthur is lurking around the house like a vulture."
"The offline drive from July 2024," the man said. "Is it destroyed?"
"It's in the safe behind the portrait in the library!" Lauren whispered frantically. "I haven't had a chance to incinerate the physical platter yet!"
"Get it out now," the voice commanded. "Meet me at the north gate in twenty minutes. If you fail to bring that drive, Lauren... I'll make sure you take the fall for everything. Including Eleanor's splash."
The line went dead.
May you like
Lauren gasped for air, quickly draining her glass of scotch. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and hurried toward the grand library.
She didn't notice the silent shadow standing at the far end of the darkened corridor—Arthur, holding a silent digital recorder in his coat pocket, his face dark as thunder as he watched her disappear into the library.
