Chapter 3 - The Security Footage They Never Wanted Me to SeeGraham arrived at the workshop the following morning.
He looked as though he had not slept.
“Please,” he said when Rowan opened the door. “Five minutes.”
She considered refusing.
Instead, she stepped aside.
Graham entered and stopped when he saw the photographs spread across her father's workbench.
“Where did you get those?”
Rowan watched his expression.
“You recognize them.”
He said nothing.
“Did you know my father worked for Eleanor Ashcroft?”
“I knew he had repaired jewelry for wealthy clients.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
Graham rubbed his forehead.
“My mother told me your father had been involved in a dispute over the Ashcroft estate.”
“What kind of dispute?”
“She never explained.”
“Did you ever ask?”
“Rowan—”
“Did you?”
“No.”
The answer hurt more than she expected.
Graham had never questioned Margaret's version of the past.
Just as he had never questioned Margaret's accusation the night of the theft.
Rowan showed him the photograph of the eight diamonds.
Graham stared at it.
“There were eight?”
“Yes.”
“My mother always said the collection contained seven.”
“Your mother says many things.”
Graham looked at her.
“Do you think she stole them?”
“I think you should have asked that question before ordering security to search me.”
He lowered his eyes.
“I made a terrible mistake.”
“You made a choice.”
He approached her.
“I was trying to protect the company.”
“And I was your wife.”
Graham stopped.
For the first time, he seemed to understand that those two facts should never have been competing interests.
Before he could answer, Leah called.
She had obtained a backup from an independent insurance camera.
The camera had been installed in the gallery three months earlier after a separate security incident.
Margaret had apparently forgotten it existed.
Rowan and Graham drove to Leah's apartment.
On the screen, the gallery appeared empty at 7:36 p.m.
Then a man entered.
He wore a maintenance uniform.
His face was partly concealed by a cap.
He crossed to the vault's emergency panel, entered a code, and disappeared into the service corridor.
Three minutes later, Margaret entered.
She carried a small black case.
Graham leaned forward.
“No.”
The footage showed Margaret opening the display cabinet and exchanging the diamond tray for an identical one.
The replacement tray appeared to hold seven stones.
But when Leah enlarged the image, Rowan recognized the difference.
The replacements were glass.
At 7:42, Rowan entered to complete her final inspection.
The camera angle showed her standing before the cabinet, unaware that the stones had already been switched.
Then the footage froze.
Leah paused the recording.
“Your badge was the last recorded at the main vault door because the theft had already happened.”
Graham sat motionless.
“My mother.”
Rowan said nothing.
There was nothing she could say that would make his realization less devastating.
Leah continued the recording.
At 7:47, Margaret returned with the maintenance worker.
He removed the false stones.
Then he turned toward the camera.
For one brief moment, his face became visible.
Rowan recognized him.
Daniel Pike.
Mercer House's former restoration supervisor.
He had been dismissed six months earlier after Rowan discovered irregularities in several appraisal records.
Graham stood abruptly.
“Pike was fired.”
“Officially,” Leah replied.
Rowan looked at him.
“But your mother kept paying him.”
Graham turned pale.
“How do you know?”
Leah opened another file.
“Because his consulting invoices are still being processed through a Mercer family trust.”
A knock sounded at the apartment door.
All three froze.
Then a man's voice called from the hallway.
“Boston Police. Open the door.”
Leah glanced through the peephole.
Her expression changed.
May you like
“That's not a police officer.”
The doorknob began to turn.
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