Chapter 3 — The Feed Was Already Live

Detective ReyesMr. Cole? We got your dispatch out of the control room.

AdrianDetective. Thank you for coming up. The victim's right here.

Detective ReyesMedics, bring the board in. Watch yourselves, there's glass everywhere.

Two paramedics came down the corridor with a spine board and knelt on either side of Nora, and one of them began cutting the sleeve away from her right forearm.

NoraI can walk. I just need a second.

AdrianYou are not walking anywhere until Whitfield clears you.

CamilleDetective! I am Camille Ashford! This man struck me! Look at my face!

Detective Reyes looked for a moment at the mark on Camille's cheek. Then he looked down at Nora's cut palms, the bruising coming up along her jaw, and the eight-thousand-dollar decanter in pieces around her.

Detective ReyesMa'am, we have had the estate feed on a monitor at the precinct since 9:14 this evening.

CamilleWhat feed?

Detective ReyesThe corridor camera. Mr. Cole's insurers patched it through to us nine days ago after the Fenwick burglary.

CamilleThat is illegal. Nobody consented to that.

AdrianThe estate consented. I signed the rider myself.

Detective ReyesI watched it twice on the drive over here, ma'am. You picked the decanter up off the console table.

CamilleShe swung at me first —

Detective ReyesMrs. Cole never raised her hands. Not once. She had a leather ledger in both of them for the entire recording.

CamilleThe angle is misleading. Anyone can see that.

Detective ReyesThere are two cameras.

Camille...Two?

Detective ReyesOne at each end of the corridor. Sixty frames a second. And audio on both of them.

CamilleAudio.

Detective ReyesYou said something before you swung it. Would you like me to read it back to you here, ma'am, or would you rather we did that downtown?

Camille did not answer. She looked past the detective, down the length of the corridor, at the small white dome fixed to the ceiling above the console table, and the red light inside it that had been blinking the entire time.

Detective ReyesOfficer Boyd. Bring the car round to the west portico.