The Security Camera at Midnight
The lights returned thirty seconds later.
The doorway was empty.
Henry searched the entire house.
No one was there.
But Leo was growling toward the basement.
Henry followed.
At the bottom of the stairs, he discovered an old security monitor.
Most of the system was dead.
One camera still worked.
It showed the cemetery.
Henry watched the recording from the night before Richard died.
At 2:13 a.m., a black vehicle entered the cemetery.
A man stepped out.
Henry paused the video.
The image was blurry.
But the man carried something.
A small medical case.
Henry continued watching.
The man approached Richard's private mausoleum.
Then another figure appeared.
Richard himself.
Henry stared.
His grandfather was supposed to have been at home that night.
Instead, he had secretly met someone at the cemetery.
The two men argued.
Then Richard handed him an envelope.
The stranger left.
Five minutes later, Richard collapsed.
Henry rewound the footage.
He noticed something beside the mausoleum.
Leo.
The lion was watching from a distance.
Suddenly, another detail caught his attention.
The stranger's left hand.
He wore a distinctive silver ring.
A black stone was set in the center.
Henry had seen that ring before.
On Thomas Blake's hand.
Henry's stomach tightened.
He called the lawyer.
"Thomas, where are you?"
"At home."
"Do you own a black stone ring?"
Silence.
Then Thomas said,
"Henry, listen to me."
But Henry had already ended the call.
May you like
Someone had been lying to him.
And for the first time, Henry wondered whether the man helping him solve the mystery was actually the man who created it.
