Chapter 2 - The Camera That Went Dark
The camera’s green light should never have turned off.
It was hardwired into the house, backed by a battery, and connected to a secure cloud account that only Ryan and I were supposed to know existed.
Ryan knew exactly what that dead light meant.
So did I.
“Don’t move,” I told him.
He glanced toward the open front door.
I shifted my stance, blocking the straightest path out.
Nancy’s grip weakened around my wrist. I crouched without taking my eyes off Ryan and touched two fingers to the side of her neck. Her pulse was rapid and thin. Her breathing came in shallow pulls.
“Mom, stay with me.”
“I’m here.”
Her voice barely carried.
Ryan raised both hands, suddenly performing calmness.
“This got out of control.”
“You hit a seventy-one-year-old woman with a bat.”
“She came at me.”
My eyes dropped to Nancy’s empty hands, then to the bat on the counter.
Ryan noticed.
“She grabbed it first,” he said quickly. “I took it away.”
Nancy shook her head against the floor.
“Liar.”
Ryan’s mouth tightened.
I pulled out my phone and called 911. As the dispatcher answered, Ryan lunged toward the kitchen counter.
Not toward the bat.
Toward a small black remote beside the fruit bowl.
I got there first.
I swept his legs, caught his shoulder, and drove him face-first against the side of the island. The marble rattled beneath the impact. He twisted violently, but I pinned his wrist behind his back.
The remote slid across the floor.
Nancy stared at it.
“That’s what he used,” she whispered.
“For the camera?”
“No. The garage.”
Ryan stopped struggling for half a second.
That pause told me more than any confession could have.
I gave the dispatcher our address and reported an assault in progress, possible chemical exposure, and a potentially dangerous suspect. Then I placed the phone on speaker.
“Officers are on the way,” the dispatcher said.
Ryan laughed against the marble.
“You really think they’ll believe this?”
“I think they’ll believe her injuries.”
“They’ll believe what I tell them. They always do.”
I tightened my hold.
“What’s in the garage?”
He turned his head enough for me to see one eye.
“Cleaning supplies.”
Nancy tried to push herself upright and cried out.
“He made me sign something,” she said. “Then he carried boxes inside.”
“What kind of boxes?”
“I couldn’t see. He took my glasses.”
Ryan began fighting again, harder this time.
The remote lay near my mother’s broken frames. One button was marked with the symbol for the garage door. The other had no label.
I reached with my free hand and picked it up.
“Kelsey,” Ryan said sharply.
It was the first time he sounded afraid of what I might do rather than angry that I had stopped him.
I pressed the unlabeled button.
A low mechanical hum started somewhere beneath us.
Not in the garage.
Under the kitchen floor.
Nancy’s eyes widened.
The marble panel beside the pantry shifted outward half an inch, revealing a narrow black opening and the cold edge of a hidden metal door.
Ryan stopped resisting completely.
Then something inside the compartment began ringing.
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It was a cell phone.
📖 Read why a hidden phone was ringing beneath my kitchen—and whose name appeared when I opened the compartment in CHAPTER 3. 👇
