The iron gates of the Vance estate slammed shut behind Clara, leaving her out on the humid sidewalk.
Clara: Think, Clara, think. He’s going to spin this before the sun goes down.
She pulled her phone from her pocket, her fingers tapping rapidly on the screen.
Clara: Marcus, please pick up...
Marcus: Clara? What’s wrong? You sound out of breath.
Clara: Julian Vance just kicked me out. He tried to frame me for dropping his newborn son.
Marcus: What?! Are you okay? Is the baby okay?
Clara: The baby is fine, I caught him just in time. But Marcus, something is terribly wrong in that house.
Marcus: What do you mean?
Clara: Julian claimed the foyer security cameras were turned off for maintenance.
Marcus: But I installed that system two months ago! Those cameras record directly to a private cloud drive that can't be turned off manually from the house control panel!
Clara: Are you sure?
Marcus: 100% sure. The backup server uploads every second to an offsite folder. He can turn off the monitor in the hallway, but the footage is still live on the server.
Clara: Can you access the live feed right now?
Marcus: Give me two minutes. Let me log into my technician dashboard.
Clara paced along the perimeter wall of the mansion, watching the upper-floor windows.
Clara: Hurry, Marcus. He’s probably trying to wipe everything right now.
Marcus: I’m pulling up the foyer camera logs from fifteen minutes ago... wait, that’s strange.
Clara: What is it?
Marcus: The feed didn't cut out because of a glitch. Someone manually pulled the primary power cable from the wall box at 7:45 AM.
Clara: Right before Julian came down the stairs with the child carrier.
Marcus: Exactly. But here's the thing—the auxiliary lens on the high-angle corner camera has its own battery backup. It stayed online for five minutes after the power was cut.
Clara: Did it catch the incident?
Marcus: Clara... I’m looking at the video right now. Oh man, this is sick.
Clara: What do you see? Tell me!
Marcus: Julian didn't slip. He intentionally tipped the carrier off the marble console table while your back was turned!
Clara: He staged it? Why would a father stage an accident to injure his own baby?!
Marcus: Look closer at the clip... he wasn't trying to injure the baby. He was trying to swap the carrier!
Clara: Swap it? What are you talking about?
Marcus: There was another bag on the floor behind the door. When you slid across the floor to catch the child, Julian reached down and snatched a paper folder out of the carrier's side pocket.
Clara: The paper folder... that’s what I saw him hiding in his jacket!
Marcus: Clara, those papers had official seal stamps on them. I can zoom in on the frame rate.
Clara: Can you read what it says?
Marcus: It says 'DNA Paternity Test Results - Confidential.'
Clara: He wasn't trying to hurt the baby... he was hiding the test results from Victoria!
Marcus: I’m saving this video file right now to a secure drive. Where are you?
Clara: I’m standing right outside the front gate. I need to get back in there before he forces Victoria to sign whatever legal papers he’s planning.
Marcus: Don't go back in alone! Call the sheriff!
Clara: By the time the sheriff gets here, Julian will have destroyed those papers. I’m going back in through the service door.
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