Chapter 4 - THE SECURITY FOOTAGE
The house cameras had not been erased.
That surprised Kelsey.
Ryan probably never had time.
The system stored thirty days locally and mirrored event clips to a cloud account Kelsey still controlled because she had originally registered the equipment.
She did not sit alone in the hospital and start downloading files.
She contacted the detective assigned to the assault and told him relevant footage existed.
By afternoon, investigators obtained and preserved it.
Kelsey watched later with Nancy’s permission and her attorney present.
The footage did not show Ryan striking Nancy with the bat.
The kitchen camera had been offline since a firmware update two weeks earlier.
That frustrated Kelsey until the hallway clips loaded.
8:41 p.m.
Nancy entered Ryan’s home office carrying her purse.
8:47.
Ryan came down the hallway quickly.
8:51.
The door opened.
Nancy stumbled out without her glasses.
Ryan had one hand locked around her upper arm.
He pulled her toward the kitchen.
Nancy resisted.
A small glittering object remained on the floor near the office doorway.
A lens fragment.
8:52.
Ryan returned alone.
He looked down.
Then deliberately stepped on something near the doorway before walking back toward the kitchen.
His right shoe.
Kelsey stopped the video.
The shard.
The image did not prove why he had attacked Nancy.
It did prove several important things.
Her glasses broke outside the kitchen.
Ryan had physically moved her.
His initial explanation to officers—that Nancy fell after becoming agitated during an argument in the kitchen—was false.
Then another camera provided something else.
The driveway.
At 7:58 p.m., a black Mercedes arrived.
A man Kelsey recognized stepped out.
Gavin Pierce.
Ryan’s attorney for Hale Industrial.
He entered through the side door.
Left nineteen minutes later.
Why had Ryan’s business lawyer been at their house less than an hour before Nancy found the Northstar folder?
Kelsey called Gavin.
He declined to discuss legal matters relating to Ryan.
Correctly.
Then Kelsey asked:
“Do you represent Hale Industrial LLC?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“I’m a thirty-percent member.”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
“Then I’m requesting the company’s current transaction documents through counsel.”
Gavin’s tone changed.
“Kelsey, I think everyone needs to slow down.”
There it was.
The phrase people used when speed benefited them.
“I’ve been slow for years.”
“Kelsey—”
“My mother is in a sling.”
He went quiet.
Kelsey ended the call.
That evening Nancy said:
“I remember something Ryan said.”
“What?”
“After he stepped on my glasses.”
Kelsey waited.
“He said, ‘You were supposed to sign tomorrow.’”
The cheap buyout.
Nancy had agreed to meet Ryan the next morning to “review retirement paperwork.”
She had not understood it would involve selling her ownership.
If Nancy signed before learning about Northstar, Ryan could acquire her stake for a fraction of its value.
But even that did not explain all of his panic.
Because Kelsey still owned thirty percent.
May you like
A sale could not disappear her.
Unless Ryan had already found a way to make her thirty percent behave as though it belonged to him too.
