Chapter 4 – The Witness Nobody Expected
Detective Rachel Morgan believed every conspiracy left behind one mistake.
She found hers in the mansion's security office.
An old maintenance worker named Carl had worked for the Harrington family for nearly twenty years.
He rarely spoke.
But when Rachel asked about the accident, his face became pale.
"I always wondered if I should've said something."
Rachel leaned forward.
"What did you see?"
Carl swallowed.
"The night of the crash... Mrs. Harrington ordered every security camera facing the garage turned off."
Rachel's eyes narrowed.
"For how long?"
"About thirty minutes."
"Why?"
"She said they were being upgraded."
There had never been any upgrade.
Carl opened an old toolbox and removed a forgotten flash drive.
"I copied the maintenance logs."
Rachel plugged it into her laptop.
The timestamps confirmed everything.
Every camera covering the driveway had gone dark only minutes before Ava's car left the estate.
Then another detail appeared.
One camera hadn't completely shut down.
It captured only a single blurry frame.
A shadow.
Someone standing beside Ava's vehicle.
Rachel enlarged the image.
Not enough to identify a face.
But enough to identify clothing.
A dark coat with Margaret Harrington's unmistakable emerald brooch pinned to the collar.
Rachel slowly exhaled.
May you like
The accident might never have been an accident.
And someone had unknowingly preserved the first crack in Margaret's perfect story.
