Chapter 3 - THE CAMERA ABOVE THE STAIRS
Our house had a security camera in the upstairs hallway.
Daniel installed it six months earlier after packages started disappearing from the porch.
I had forgotten about it.
Daniel remembered before I did.
At 4:12 a.m., while Lily remained in intensive care, he approached Officer Grant.
“Our hallway camera.”
Patricia’s face changed.
“What?”
Daniel looked at his mother.
“The camera by the stairs.”
She stared.
“It doesn’t record inside the hallway.”
“It does.”
Silence.
The camera did not show Lily hitting the floor clearly because the angle ended near the bedroom doorway.
But it captured sound.
Patricia’s voice:
“That baby has been screaming for forty minutes.”
Mine:
“She’s three weeks old, Patricia.”
Then:
“Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid.”
A sharp sound.
My gasp.
Then the unmistakable impact of something small against hardwood.
And my scream:
“Lily!”
Twelve seconds later, Daniel appeared in frame.
Then Patricia:
“She dropped the baby.”
Investigators did not need me to explain why that timing mattered.
Patricia had created her defense almost immediately.
Before calling for help.
Before asking whether Lily was breathing.
May you like
Her first instinct had been to assign blame.
---
Related Stories
