Chapter 3
The grainy footage played in slow, silent motion. On the screen, a figure in a dark jacket moved past the master bedroom door, pausing just outside the threshold. Julian watched the timestamp advance by three seconds. The person on the screen reached out, pushed the door open a fraction further, and slipped inside. Elena stepped up beside her husband, her sharp features tightening as she strained to see the monitor. "That's... that's the side entrance hallway," she murmured, the fierce anger in her voice dropping an octave, replaced by a sudden, thin edge of uncertainty. Clara slowly lowered her hands from her face, her red-rimmed eyes blinking against the blue light of the screens. She looked up at Julian, sniffing softly, waiting for the inevitable blow to fall regardless of what the cameras showed. Julian didn't look at either of them. His focus remained entirely on the monitor, where the figure was now backing out of the room, holding something small that glinted faintly under the recessed lighting. "Pause," Julian said aloud, his voice dropping into that measured register that always commanded silence in a room. The video froze. On the screen, the figure turned their head just enough for the hallway light to catch the side of their face. Elena stepped back, her breath hitching in her throat. The reflection in the monitor showed a man who wasn't supposed to be anywhere near the upper floor that evening.
