Chapter 10 - The Man in the Video.
Maya raised her hand before anyone entered the cellar.
“Wait.”
Detective Ortiz stopped.
The knocking came again through the floorboards.
Three short.
Two long.
Three short.
Ortiz looked at Maya.
“Same signal?”
“Yes.”
“Who else knew it?”
Maya thought back to the nursery years earlier.
Evelyn had taught Noah while Maya folded sheets.
Jonathan had not been there.
Celeste had not been there.
But someone else had entered near the end.
Marcus Reed.
He had been carrying documents for Evelyn to sign.
Maya had forgotten him completely until that moment.
“Marcus heard it.”
Officers descended the cellar stairs.
The old wine room appeared empty.
Then another knock came from behind a rack of dusty Burgundy bottles.
The rack swung aside when an officer pulled a hidden latch.
Marcus Reed was inside a narrow service passage.
His hands were raised.
His face was bleeding above one eyebrow.
“Don't shoot.”
Ortiz approached him carefully.
“Where is Celeste?”
Marcus laughed once without humor.
“You think I'm helping her?”
“You ran.”
“She told me the police would blame me for everything.”
“Did you forge Jonathan's signature?”
Marcus looked at Maya.
Then at the blue evidence bag in Ortiz's hand.
“I signed some documents electronically when Jonathan authorized routine paperwork.”
“Did you create the Vermont transfer?”
“No.”
“Did you hide this bottle?”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Maya stared at him.
“You knew what she was doing to Noah.”
“No.”
“You hid the bottle.”
“After the police arrived.”
“That is still helping her.”
Marcus's voice cracked.
“She told me it was medication that had been improperly stored.”
“Why hide it in flour?” Ortiz asked.
“Because she said if reporters found prescription medication in the house, it would destroy the foundation.”
Maya felt disgusted.
“And that mattered more than Noah?”
Marcus looked away.
Ortiz ordered an officer to cuff him.
Before they led him out, he spoke quickly.
“There is something else.”
Ortiz stopped.
“Talk.”
“Celeste made me edit videos.”
Maya's chest tightened.
“Which videos?”
“Jonathan talking about Noah.”
“Why?”
“She said they were for therapy.”
Marcus swallowed.
“She wanted clips where Jonathan sounded frustrated.”
Maya thought of Noah watching his father say, do whatever the doctor recommends.
“How many?”
“Maybe twenty.”
“Did you know she showed them to Noah?”
“No.”
Ortiz studied him.
“Where are the original files?”
“In the study computer.”
“We found them.”
Marcus hesitated.
“That isn't all.”
The cellar seemed to grow quieter.
“There is one video Celeste told me never to copy.”
“Where?”
Marcus looked toward the ceiling as if Celeste might somehow hear him through the house.
“On Evelyn's old camera.”
Maya took a step closer.
“What is on it?”
Marcus's face lost what little color remained.
“Evelyn confronting Celeste the night before she died.”
Maya stepped closer to him.
“You saw it?”
“Only part of it.”
“What part?”
“Evelyn accused Celeste of changing documents after Jonathan signed them.”
Marcus stared at the floor.
“She said the foundation money was only the beginning.”
Ortiz's eyes narrowed.
“What did Celeste say?”
Marcus swallowed.
“She told Evelyn that sick people make unreliable witnesses.”
Maya felt anger crawl up the back of her neck.
It was the same method Celeste had later used against Noah.
First make the victim sound unstable.
Then make every frightened reaction look like proof.
Marcus shook his head.
“I should have understood sooner.”
May you like
Maya looked at him coldly.
“Yes.”
