Chapter 3 - The Camera Above the Crib
Ryan stared at the memory card.
"What is this?"
Maya looked toward the closed treatment-room door.
"Evidence."
Ryan waited.
Maya's fingers twisted together.
"Three weeks ago, I found a camera above Oliver's bookshelf."
Ryan frowned.
"A security camera?"
"No."
She shook her head.
"A hidden camera."
The words landed harder than he expected.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I tried."
Ryan immediately remembered.
Maya had called him during a meeting in New York.
She had said there was something strange in the nursery.
He had told her they would discuss it when he came home.
Then Evelyn had called him fifteen minutes later.
His mother had said Maya was spiraling again.
Ryan closed his eyes.
Maya watched him remember.
"When I found the camera, I thought someone had installed it because of Oliver's breathing."
She continued.
"But it wasn't pointed at his bed."
"It was pointed at me."
Ryan looked at her.
"It recorded the chair where I held him."
"The changing table."
"The medication cabinet."
"Everything."
She leaned forward.
"Then your mother started provoking me."
Ryan said nothing.
"She would move Oliver's medication."
"She would hide his favorite blanket."
"She would change his meal schedule after I asked her not to."
"Then she would stand in front of the camera and ask why I was so angry."
Ryan felt sick.
Maya's voice became harder.
"I realized she wasn't watching me."
"She was producing me."
Before Ryan could answer, a doctor approached.
Oliver was breathing comfortably again.
They could see him.
The boy looked impossibly small beneath the hospital blanket.
Ryan kissed his forehead.
Oliver opened his eyes.
"Daddy."
"I'm here, buddy."
Oliver reached toward Maya.
"Mommy cried."
Ryan glanced at his wife.
Oliver touched his own cheek.
"Grandma pushed Mommy."
The room went silent.
Maya turned away.
Ryan leaned closer.
"What happened, Oliver?"
Maya immediately stopped him.
"Don't question him."
Ryan nodded.
She was right.
Oliver was three years old.
He had just survived a terrifying asthma attack.
This was not the time.
But Oliver whispered something else anyway.
"Grandma said Mommy goes away."
Ryan's stomach dropped.
Maya covered her mouth.
Ryan looked toward the hospital doorway.
Officer Ruiz was standing there.
He had heard every word.
An hour later, Ruiz connected Maya's memory card to a police laptop.
The footage had not captured the entire nursery.
But it had captured enough.
Evelyn entered the room six days earlier.
She opened Oliver's medication cabinet.
She removed the inhaler.
Then she looked directly toward the hidden camera.
And smiled.
The timestamp continued.
Several minutes later, Maya entered.
She searched the cabinet.
She called Evelyn's name.
Evelyn returned and calmly told her that she must have misplaced the medication again.
Ryan watched his wife's confusion turn to panic.
Then the recording skipped.
Someone had deleted the next twelve minutes.
Ruiz leaned closer to the screen.
"Interesting."
Ryan looked at him.
"What?"
Ruiz pointed to the file directory.
May you like
"Whoever deleted the footage missed something."
A second camera had been recording too.
