Chapter 13 - The Camera Doris ForgotThe university archived one image every thirty seconds.
No audio.
No continuous video.
But investigators requested the files.
At 1:48 p.m., the first image showed Miles and Doris approaching Eagle’s Crown.
At 1:49, Miles stood near the edge.
Doris behind him.
At 1:50, they were closer together.
At 1:51, Miles had turned toward Doris.
His hands were raised.
At 1:52, Doris stood directly behind him.
Miles’s body leaned forward at an unnatural angle.
At 1:52:30—
Miles was gone.
Doris stood alone.
At 1:53, she was still at the edge.
At 1:53:30, she turned away.
At 1:54, she walked calmly toward the trail.
No photograph captured the kick itself.
But Detective Shaw laid them in sequence across a table.
“Her story was that he jumped voluntarily.”
Rachel stared.
“He’s facing her thirty seconds before he disappears.”
“Yes.”
“And afterward she doesn’t search.”
“No.”
“Does she call anyone?”
“Her phone records show she waited nineteen minutes before calling you.”
Harold looked up.
“Nineteen?”
Shaw nodded.
“She drove almost all the way back to the parking area first.”
Rachel’s jaw tightened.
“She wanted distance from the cliff.”
“That’s one interpretation.”
“It’s the right one.”
Shaw did not disagree.
The district attorney finally approved an arrest warrant application for attempted murder and felony child abuse.
But before it could be signed, Doris disappeared.
Her attorney claimed not to know where she was.
Police found her Mercedes at a private airport.
Rachel’s heart stopped when she heard.
“She ran.”
“Possibly,” Shaw said.
“Where?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Harold looked devastated.
But Miles surprised everyone.
“She didn’t run away.”
Rachel turned.
“What makes you say that?”
Miles sat on the couch with his casted wrist.
“Grandma hates flying in little planes.”
Harold blinked.
“He’s right.”
Ethan frowned.
“Then why leave her car there?”
“To make us think she left,” Rachel said.
Detective Shaw changed strategy.
They checked Hale family properties.
The main estate.
Two rental homes.
The old hunting cabin.
Nothing.
Then Rachel remembered a place nobody had mentioned.
“Evelyn’s cottage.”
Harold looked at her.
The cottage had been abandoned for years.
It sat near an old service road on the far eastern boundary of Hale Ridge.
Police arrived just before midnight.
Doris was not there.
But someone had been.
Fresh food.
A laptop charger.
Fireplace ashes.
And an empty document case.
Detectives found burned paper in the fireplace.
Most was unreadable.
One fragment survived.
A signature.
Thomas Bell.
Another fragment showed two words.
Wolf Creek.
Rachel stared at the ashes.
“She came here to destroy evidence.”
Shaw nodded.
“Looks that way.”
“What evidence?”
“We’ll find out.”
The laptop was gone.
So was Doris.
But outside, a deputy found tire tracks.
They belonged to a vehicle registered to Grant Mercer.
The next morning Mercer was questioned.
He denied helping Doris.
His attorney did most of the talking.
Then investigators obtained toll-camera images.
Mercer’s SUV had entered the mountain road at 10:14 p.m.
It left at 11:36.
A passenger was visible.
Silver hair.
Doris.
Mercer finally stopped pretending.
He claimed Doris had asked for a ride because she feared Harold.
He insisted he dropped her at a hotel.
The hotel had no record of her.
Rachel sat with Miles that evening.
“Are you scared she’ll come here?”
He nodded.
“So am I.”
Miles looked at her.
“You say that now.”
“What?”
“You tell me when you’re scared.”
Rachel smiled sadly.
“I’m learning.”
He leaned against her.
A minute later, the doorbell rang.
Everyone froze.
Ethan checked the camera.
A courier stood outside.
He carried a package addressed to Harold.
Inside was Doris’s laptop.
No note.
No explanation.
Someone had abandoned it at a church.
The hard drive had been wiped.
But not perfectly.
Forensic technicians recovered one recently deleted email.
It had been sent by Doris to Grant Mercer six days before Miles’s fall.
Once the successor issue is resolved, there will be no one left who can stop the western ridge transaction.
May you like
Mercer’s reply contained only four words.
Make sure it looks natural.
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