Chapter 7 - LAUREL LEFT A MESSAGE FOR A FUTURE SHE FEAREDEverett could not look away.
Laurel had recorded the video four years earlier.
Yet she spoke like she had expected this exact moment.
“If Seraphina West is inside our home, Nolan failed me.”
Everett glanced at Detective Ellison.
Graham looked sick.
Laurel continued:
“Nolan says he is trying to dismantle the network from inside.”
Everett frowned.
That complicated everything.
“He says Seraphina is working under orders, not by choice.”
Hadley was no longer in the room.
Everett had asked Doreen to take her upstairs before playing the video.
He was grateful.
Some truths belonged away from children.
Laurel continued:
“I don’t know whether I believe him.”
A pause.
“I know Seraphina has been watching Hadley.”
Everett felt rage rise again.
“She approached her preschool twice.”
His stomach dropped.
“Both times she left when staff noticed.”
Detective Ellison wrote quickly.
Laurel:
“I confronted her.”
“Seraphina claimed Hadley accidentally received something meant for me.”
Everett leaned closer.
Something?
“She would not say what.”
Laurel’s eyes narrowed on-screen.
“I think they believe I hid access credentials in Hadley’s belongings.”
Everett thought of the hidden memory card.
The childish games.
Maybe they were right.
Then Laurel said:
“The surveillance network is called Lantern.”
Julian immediately typed the name.
Laurel:
“It is not a company.”
“It is a private program operating through multiple security vendors.”
“Northstar is one.”
“There may be others.”
Everett felt the scale widening.
“Nolan says Lantern started as corporate due diligence.”
“It became something else.”
Laurel looked down at notes.
“Video collected without client knowledge was indexed for leverage.”
“Divorces.”
“Business negotiations.”
“Litigation.”
“Political pressure.”
Graham whispered:
“Jesus.”
Laurel continued:
“I found evidence Whitmore Capital was targeted too.”
Everett froze.
Not just investor.
Target.
“The network has footage from our home going back years.”
His chest tightened.
Bedrooms?
Arguments?
Hadley?
Laurel:
“I asked Nolan whether he knew.”
“He said no.”
“I don’t believe him yet.”
Then the important part.
“I copied a list of Lantern clients and controllers onto a separate recorder.”
“The recorder is not in this house.”
Everett looked at Doreen’s empty chair.
She thought Laurel took it.
Laurel:
“I gave it to someone I trust.”
Everett glanced at Graham.
Graham shook his head.
Not him.
Laurel continued:
“If I die before I can expose this, do not assume the recorder was destroyed.”
“It was built to upload if physically opened without the correct sequence.”
Julian whispered:
“Tamper trigger.”
“If they find it and force it open, the evidence goes somewhere else.”
Everett leaned forward.
“Where?”
Laurel looked directly into camera.
“I didn’t tell Nolan.”
“Or Graham.”
Both men reacted.
Everett stared at Graham.
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
Laurel:
“And I won’t tell Everett in this recording.”
Everett almost laughed despite the pain.
Even dead, Laurel anticipated him.
“Because if someone is watching him watch this, the backup must remain safe.”
Julian looked toward the isolated network.
“Smart.”
Everett didn’t feel complimented.
He felt helpless.
Laurel continued:
“Hadley knows one part.”
Everett’s body went still.
“Not information.”
“A game.”
“She will not understand it for years.”
“So do not frighten her trying to make her remember.”
Everett closed his eyes.
Seraphina had done exactly that.
Maybe not knowing what Hadley knew.
Punishing.
Threatening.
Searching for scraps of childhood memory.
Laurel said:
“The first phrase is who watches the watcher.”
“The second is moonlight finds the stars.”
Everett knew both now.
“The third…”
Laurel smiled sadly.
“…belongs to Hadley.”
The video ended.
Everett stared at black screen.
Detective Ellison asked:
“Do you know the third phrase?”
“No.”
Graham said:
“Don’t ask her directly.”
Everett glared.
“I know.”
“Seraphina probably has been.”
That landed.
Every cruel interaction might have been partly interrogation.
“What happened when Hadley wouldn’t answer?”
No one needed to say it.
The bathroom.
The basement?
Everett didn’t know yet how far Seraphina had gone.
He asked Julian:
“Can you search archives for Hadley mentioning stars or moonlight?”
“Across weeks of footage?”
“Yes.”
“With speech recognition, maybe.”
“Do it.”
Julian began indexing audio.
Detective Ellison got a call.
Nolan had been located.
At Whitmore Capital headquarters.
He had entered after midnight using executive access.
Then building security lost his badge signal.
“What’s he doing there?” Everett asked.
“Unknown.”
Everett knew.
Destroying evidence.
Or retrieving it.
Police headed there.
Graham insisted on going.
Everett did too.
At the office tower, officers found Nolan inside the records floor.
He wasn’t destroying anything.
He was bleeding.
Someone had struck him from behind.
He was conscious.
Barely.
When he saw Everett, his eyes widened.
“Hadley.”
Everett crouched.
“She’s safe.”
Nolan gripped his sleeve.
“Don’t let Seraphina ask her the rhyme.”
Everett froze.
“What rhyme?”
Nolan struggled to speak.
“She knows two parts.”
Everett’s heart pounded.
“Who?”
“Seraphina.”
“What happens if she gets the third?”
Nolan’s eyes filled with fear.
“She can find Laurel’s dead drop.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who attacked you?”
Nolan looked past Everett.
Toward Graham.
Then whispered:
“He did.”
May you like
Everett slowly turned toward his oldest friend.
Graham Voss had gone completely pale.
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