Page 41 of Her Dark Lies
“I’ve never heard that name.”
“We’re running the prints, too. We’re thinking that Wold ID may be fake. In the trunk, there was a duffle bag. The items inside were...disturbing. Rope, duct tape, entry tools, flashlight, another gun. All items that tell us the suspect was planning to hurt someone. We’re not sure whether he was getting up his nerve, or casing your house, or stealing your underwear, ma’am—we just don’t know. But there’s more. There were also packages of wires and cameras.”
“Cameras? What kind of cameras?” I ask, confused. Lightning quick, Jack’s face shifts from concern to realization to outright terror.
“The kind used to watch you without you knowing,” O’Donnell says. “Very small. Easily hidden.”
“Where did you find these cameras, if I may ask?” Jack asks tightly. “Just in his car?”
“No, sir.” This is Cooper, I think, his voice is rougher, meaner, than the lieutenant. “When we swept the house, looking for them, this time, we found multiple hidden cameras. Obviously, there are currently security cameras in your house, Mr. Compton, but these—they are very small. They were well hidden. We found drill marks in the rafters, empty shafts. Looks like they were installed in the mechanism of the fans, in the lights.”
“How many cameras did you find?”
“At last count, there were at least twenty. They were spread through the house—the master, the living room, and the studio. One of them seems to have shorted out, there were burn marks in the rafter in your studio, ma’am. Lucky we found them, it could have burned down the house.”
Jack looks ready to explode. I put my hand on his. He needs to keep his composure.
“Why would someone want to spy on us?” My own voice is shaking, both with anger and fear. Someone’s been watching me. Watching me with Jack. Watching us together. And whoever it is must have had a front row view to the events of Monday. This is bad. This is very, very bad.
“I have no idea, Ms. Hunter. Do you?” O’Donnell doesn’t seem worried about assuaging me at all. I’m surprised Jack doesn’t scold him for being so short with me.
“No. Of course not. This is terribly disturbing, Lieutenant.”
“Understandable. It’s quite an invasion of privacy. From what we can tell, the cameras aren’t recording on site, they’re transmitting to another location. Ms. Harris, I was hoping you could provide your footage from the security cameras that were supposed to be recording. Can you send that along?”
Jack leans forward, but Karmen shakes her head. “We have a problem there, Lieutenant. I’ve been working on this all day. It seems the tapes for the past week were written over. An internal review is underway. Trust me when I say this won’t happen again.”
Jack tenses, staring at Karmen in fury. She writes quickly on the notepad in her lap:I’ll explain later roll with it.
O’Donnell’s voice gets more curious now. Even I find this awfully convenient, though I am so, so grateful. I hope Karmen knows what she’s doing.
“What do you mean, they were written over? Is this something that happens regularly?”
She answers smoothly. “As I’m sure you know, for most offsite security systems, it’s typical to recycle the tapes on the first of the month. Assuming there’s nothing suspicious on them, naturally. In this case, there was a screwup. It is my understanding that our regular technician was in a car accident and ended up in the hospital, and while he’s been out this week, his replacement recycled all the tapes every night at midnight, as was done in his previous employ. I interrogated them both thoroughly, and am certain this was an oversight, not a nefarious act on the part of the substitute. Regardless, both have been fired with cause, as well as their immediate supervisor.”
“A shame we don’t have the video of the break-in from your side. Especially of your man shooting the suspect. It would have helped to have the whole picture, to see exactly what he was up to inside the house.” O’Donnell is polite, courteous to a fault. “If you do find something, please let us know. In the meantime, we’ll keep things running on this end.”
Karmen spins a finger, signaling Jack to wrap it up.
“We’re just grateful no one else was hurt,” Jack says. “If you wouldn’t mind sharing the information you get on the remote feed, that would be a great help. You’re sure all of the cameras were retrieved?”
“We think so. And of course, we’ll share what we find. Just one more question. Ms. Hunter, we’re all assuming this break-in is related to Mr. Compton, but I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you if anything strange has happened to you lately? Have you noticed anyone lurking around? Were you receiving threats?”
“No. I haven’t. There’s just...”
Jack turns his gaze on me, full of warning. His voice is solicitous, though. “Claire? Do you know something?”
Karmen is slashing her hand across her throat. Shit. Shit!
“No. There’s nothing. I wanted to say thank you. I so appreciate everything you’re doing to help, Lieutenant.”
The lieutenant waits a moment, then says his goodbyes. Jack carefully ends the call, then turns off his phone completely. I sit up. He’s about to lose his composure entirely—I can feel the wave coming.
“That went as well as can be expected,” Karmen says.
“Cameras? There were cameras in the house? Fuck!” Jack screams the curse and is out of his chair and pacing. “Is it true? The security tapes were overwritten?”
“Yes. I’m still investigating what happened, but what I told the police was the truth. We have no footage of the incident. Obviously, that was an important factor in keeping this situation from getting out of hand.”
