Chapter 8 - The Video on My Phone
I waited until Lily was in the kitchen with her cereal before I moved the picture book.
The camera was tucked inside its spine, the little pinhole lens facing the nightstand. My hands were not steady when I lifted the cover. I thumbed the card out and slipped it into the pocket of my sweatpants. The bait glass was still on the ornate nightstand where I'd left it, half-filled and now faintly clouded with a fine sediment at the bottom. I didn't touch it yet. I pulled the bedroom doors shut and went back to the kitchen.
Lily sat at the counter in her pink dress, her gray bunny propped against the cereal box. She watched me with that quiet seriousness she gets when she's trying to read my face.
"Hey, bug," I said, keeping my voice low and even. "I'm going to let you have a play date with Mrs. Delaney next door for a little while. You want to bring bunny?"
She nodded and clutched him tighter. I texted Helen Delaney, who'd lived in the apartment across the hall since before Lily was born and had watched her a dozen times when I'd had late meetings.
While Lily finished her milk, I went into my small office and shut the door. I slid the card into my laptop and opened the file. The time stamp read 02:14. The bedroom was dark except for the soft glow from the crystal lamp. I was on my side, breathing slow, the satin bedding barely moving. Then the double doors eased open wider.
Ray stepped in. He didn't turn on a light. He wore his usual dark sweatshirt and work pants, the ones he wore when he said he was checking the back locks at night. He moved straight to the nightstand without hesitation, like he knew exactly where the glass was. He pulled a small folded paper packet from his pocket, tapped it over the water, and stirred it once with his fingertip. The powder dissolved fast. He looked toward the bed for two seconds, then stepped back out and pulled the doors to that same sliver of cool light.
I sat there with my hand over my mouth, breathing through my nose. I watched it a second time to be sure I wasn't inventing anything. It was Ray. Clear profile. Clear packet.
I ejected the card and put it back in the reader. In the kitchen, Lily was talking quietly to her bunny. I took a clean zip bag from the drawer, put on a pair of kitchen gloves, and went back to the bedroom. I stretched plastic wrap over the bait glass, secured it with a rubber band, and wrote on a piece of masking tape with a Sharpie: 02:14 AM - BEDROOM WATER - DO NOT DRINK - J. MORETTI 10/3. My writing was messy but legible.
Helen knocked softly. I let her in and kept my voice calm.
"Thanks for this, Helen. I have to run an errand on the county road. Maybe an hour. She just had breakfast."
Helen smiled at Lily. "We got crayons and apple slices. You good with that, Lily-bean?"
Lily nodded and reached for Helen's hand, her bunny tucked under her arm. I kissed the top of her head. I didn't say anything about the video or the glass. I wanted her out of the apartment entirely for this part.
I carried the sealed glass in a small cooler bag and drove with the camera card in my front pocket. The sheriff's substation on County Road F is a low brick building between the feed store and the diner, with two cruisers parked out front. Inside it smelled like coffee and floor cleaner.
The deputy at the desk was a woman in her forties, name tape reading REYES. I told her I needed to log evidence for a suspected drugging and that I had video.
She didn't rush me. She led me to a small interview room with a scuffed table and asked me to start from the beginning. I told her the water had tasted chalky a few mornings, that my daughter had warned me, that I'd set a hidden camera and a fresh glass as bait last night. I set the cooler bag on the table and slid the tape-labeled glass forward without opening it.
Reyes put on gloves, photographed the glass from four angles on the table, and wrote a tag. Then I handed her the card. She plugged it into a department laptop and copied the file while I watched. The timestamp played again. Her expression didn't change, but she paused it on the frame where Ray's hand was over the glass.
"You know this man?" she asked.
"He's done maintenance and night checks for the building. Ray Ellis. He has a key for the upstairs doors. He lets himself in after ten."
She nodded and typed. "We will log this as evidence. I'll burn two copies, one for the case file and one for the lab request. This stays in chain of custody now. You did right not to confront him at home alone."
"I wasn't going to," I said. "My daughter is next door."
"Keep it that way," she said. She printed a receipt and handed it to me. "Do not tip him off. Keep your routine normal. Lock your bedroom doors at night if you can. If he comes by, be polite and brief. Do not touch anything else he might have handled. We'll need the lab to confirm what that substance is before we can move for a warrant. That takes a few days."
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She slid the copies into an envelope and locked the original glass and card in an evidence bin. She gave me the case number on a small card.
When I left, the morning light on the parking lot felt too bright. I sat in my truck for a minute before I started it, hands on the wheel, breathing slow the way I'd practiced in the bed last night. Ray didn't know he was filmed. Lily was safe with Helen. The video and the water were no longer just in my bedroom. They were logged, copied, and out of my hands.
