Chapter 4: Someone Had Been Watching Our House For Six Weeks
Chapter 4: Someone Had Been Watching Our House For Six Weeks
I read the message three times.
You should have stayed out of this.
My hand tightened around the phone.
Claire noticed my expression.
“What is it?”
I turned the screen toward her.
She stared at the photograph.
For a moment, she didn’t breathe.
Then she whispered, “That’s our bedroom.”
“I know.”
Rebecca stepped closer.
“Where was that taken?”
“From inside.”
The investigator immediately held out his hand.
“Give me the phone.”
I hesitated.
Then I handed it over.
He examined the photograph without touching the screen.
“When did you receive this?”
“Just now.”
“From the same number?”
“Unknown.”
He looked at Daniel.
“Do you recognize the photograph?”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
The investigator looked back at me.
“Has anyone had access to your house recently?”
“Family. A cleaning service. Contractors.”
“Anyone else?”
I thought about it.
“No.”
Claire suddenly spoke.
“Wait.”
Everyone turned toward her.
“Three weeks ago, the smoke detector in our bedroom stopped working.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“I told you about it.”
“You said you replaced the batteries.”
“I did.”
“Then why—”
“Because it wasn’t the batteries.”
She looked frightened now.
“It kept making that clicking sound. The repair guy said the wiring was old.”
The investigator’s expression changed.
“Who repaired it?”
Claire gave him a name.
He immediately pulled out his phone.
“Did you hire the company?”
“No. The building management recommended them.”
“Did you verify the company?”
Claire shook her head.
The investigator looked at me.
“Don’t go home.”
That sentence made my stomach drop.
“Why?”
“Because if someone placed a camera inside your house, they may still have access.”
Rebecca stepped backward.
“We can’t just leave it there.”
“We don’t know how many devices there are.”
Daniel suddenly said, “There was something else.”
Rebecca turned toward him.
“What?”
“The hotel.”
“What about it?”
“That woman.”
He looked at me.
“She wasn’t there to meet me.”
I stared at him.
“Then who was she meeting?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
The investigator interrupted.
“You do.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
“You saw her six weeks ago.”
“Yes.”
“You spoke to her.”
“Briefly.”
“What did she say?”
Daniel looked at me.
“She asked about you.”
Silence.
Claire’s face went pale.
“About my husband?”
Daniel nodded.
“What did she ask?”
“Whether you were still married.”
My chest tightened.
“Why would she ask that?”
“I don’t know.”
The investigator studied Daniel for several seconds.
Then he said, “Because she was checking whether the setup was still working.”
I felt something cold settle in my stomach.
“The setup?”
He nodded.
“The affair rumors. The expense reports. The photographs. The money transfers.”
He looked at Claire.
“Someone needed you to believe your husband was hiding something.”
Then he looked at me.
“And they needed him to believe you were hiding something.”
Claire’s eyes filled with tears.
“So someone deliberately tried to destroy our marriage?”
“Possibly.”
“Why?”
The investigator didn’t answer.
Instead, he asked me a question.
“Have you ever worked with Mercer Strategic Holdings?”
“No.”
“Invested with them?”
“No.”
“Signed any contracts?”
“No.”
“Had any financial disputes with them?”
“No.”
He paused.
“Then there’s one thing we haven’t considered.”
“What?”
“The company may not be the target.”
He looked at Daniel.
“Daniel may be the access point.”
Daniel stiffened.
“What does that mean?”
“Someone may have used you to reach something else.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t understand.”
“You don’t have to.”
The investigator pulled another document from his folder.
This one was several pages long.
He handed it to me.
At the top was a list of names.
Employees.
Executives.
Clients.
Then I saw mine.
Not under employees.
Not under clients.
Under a heading labeled:
PERSONS OF INTEREST
My throat went dry.
“Why am I on this list?”
“Because six weeks ago, your name appeared in an internal file.”
“What file?”
“A file that was deleted.”
Daniel looked over my shoulder.
His face changed immediately.
“I’ve seen that.”
“Where?”
“In the executive archive.”
“Who had access?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Four people.”
“Names.”
Daniel gave them.
The investigator wrote them down.
Then he asked, “Who among them could access employee records, financial accounts, and security footage?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
Rebecca did.
“One person.”
Everyone looked at her.
She swallowed.
“The head of internal compliance.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Martin?”
Rebecca nodded.
“He has access to everything.”
The investigator looked at me.
“Does Martin know you?”
“I’ve never met him.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
He stared at me for another second.
Then he turned his phone around.
A photograph appeared on the screen.
Martin.
Standing beside the mysterious woman.
My heart stopped.
The photograph had been taken outside the hotel.
Six weeks ago.
Daniel stared at it.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because Martin told me he was out of the country that week.”
The investigator nodded.
“His passport confirms that.”
I frowned.
“Then how can he be here?”
The investigator zoomed in on the photograph.
“Because that’s not Martin.”
Daniel leaned closer.
His expression changed.
“No.”
“What?”
Daniel pointed at the screen.
“That’s his brother.”
The room went silent.
“Martin has a brother?”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Andrew.”
“Same company?”
“No.”
“What does he do?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Private security.”
The pieces began falling into place.
The cameras.
The photographs.
The financial transfers.
The fake affair.
Someone wasn’t simply watching us.
Someone had been constructing evidence.
And whoever was behind it understood exactly how people behaved when they were afraid.
Then Claire grabbed my arm.
“Your phone.”
I looked down.
Another message had arrived.
This time there was text.
Ask Rebecca what happened six weeks ago.
Rebecca froze.
I looked at her.
“What happened six weeks ago?”
She didn’t answer.
“Rebecca.”
Her face had lost all color.
“I didn’t want to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
She looked at Daniel.
Daniel stared at the floor.
Rebecca finally whispered,
“Six weeks ago, before I called you…”
She swallowed.
“Someone broke into our house.”
I stared at her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because nothing was stolen.”
The investigator stepped closer.
“What did they take?”
Rebecca’s eyes met mine.
“Nothing.”
She paused.
“That’s what frightened me.”
“What do you mean?”
“They left something.”
She reached into her handbag.
Slowly, she pulled out a small plastic evidence bag.
Inside was a photograph.
She placed it on the table.
I looked down.
It showed Claire.
Standing outside our house.
Talking to a man I’d never seen before.
On the back of the photograph, someone had written:
She’s not the one you should be watching.
I looked at Claire.
She was staring at the photograph in horror.
Then Daniel whispered something that made everyone turn toward him.
“I know that man.”
The investigator immediately asked,
“Who is he?”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“He’s the person who hired me.”
“To do what?”
Daniel looked at me.
“To investigate your wife.”
My blood ran cold.
“Why?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Because six weeks ago, someone paid me to prove that Claire was cheating on you.”
And suddenly, the entire affair investigation looked different.
Because Daniel hadn’t started the trap.
He had been hired to investigate it.
Which meant someone had been manipulating all of us from the very beginning.
