Chapter 2
The footage had been deleted.
Of course.
Ellis controlled estate security.
But deleted did not mean invisible inside my house.
Rafe, my senior security chief, found a backup copy on the kennel’s local monitor.
Seven minutes.
That was all.
We watched it in the adjacent grooming office.
The green groundskeeping truck arrived at 5:12 that morning.
Ellis drove.
The German Shepherd jumped from the rear compartment when he opened it.
Not dragged.
Not released deliberately.
Escaped.
Ellis cursed and chased it.
The dog ran toward the kennel room.
Then the important part.
A tiny figure appeared at the far end of the corridor.
Archie.
Pajamas.
Stuffed dinosaur in one hand.
Apparently he had wandered from Tessa’s room after waking early.
The dog stopped for him.
Archie touched the watch.
Then Ellis appeared.
The footage had no sound.
It did not need any.
Archie pointed at the watch.
Ellis froze.
Then Dahlia entered.
She looked at the collar.
Looked at Archie.
And within thirty seconds she carried my son out of camera range.
I stared at the screen.
Tessa started crying.
“I thought he was asleep.”
I shook my head.
“This isn’t on you.”
She looked at me.
“He got out.”
“And two adults decided the correct response was to imprison him in a dog kennel.”
Responsibility stays where it belongs.
Rafe paused the footage.
“Boss.”
He enlarged one frame.
The back of the green truck.
Mud across the lower panel.
Deep red clay.
Red Hollow.
The lodge sat above an abandoned clay quarry.
No other Flynn property had soil that color.
Dahlia whispered:
“You’re making assumptions.”
I turned.
“You drove there?”
She said nothing.
Ellis did.
“For maintenance.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“With Nolan?”
“No.”
Too fast.
I checked my phone.
My brother had been missing for five days.
Not officially.
Nolan was thirty-six.
He disappeared for a night sometimes.
He sent me a message four days ago.
NEED SPACE. DON’T FOLLOW.
We had argued before that.
I believed him.
That realization hit me hard.
I had not searched because my brother told me not to.
Except maybe he hadn’t.
I handed the phone to Rafe.
“Check the message route.”
Dahlia’s eyes changed again.
May you like
That was enough.
Someone had used my brother’s phone after he disappeared.
