Chapter 6 - The Hallway Camera That Wasn't There
I didn't expect to be called to the main house after dinner. My shift had ended at six and I'd already changed out of the uniform into a plain gray shirt and jeans, my hair still damp from trying to wash the floor cleaner off my hands. Rosa knocked on the door to the apartment above the garage where I stayed and said Mr. Hayes wanted a file brought to the security office. Not Victor. Mr. Hayes.
The security office was a small room off the study on the first floor, the one with no windows and six monitors stacked on the wall. I'd only ever seen it from the hallway when Victor unlocked it to check who'd come through the front gate. That night the door was open and the light was on. I stood in the hall with the manila folder Rosa had handed me and didn't know if I should knock.
Mr. Hayes was inside with Ellis, the head of security. Ellis was a former county deputy, maybe fifty, with a buzz cut and a Sheriff's department coffee mug that he'd kept. He didn't wear a suit like the two guards from that morning.
"Pull the last two weeks," Mr. Hayes said. He wasn't loud. He had his jacket off and his sleeves pushed up, the tattoos on his forearms stark under the fluorescent light. "Lobby and east wing hallway. I want to see who goes in and out after ten."
Ellis clicked through the system. The lobby camera came up clear, time-stamped, the checkered floor shining. He switched to the east wing. The feed was black with a small white text in the corner: NO SIGNAL.
"That's been like that?" Mr. Hayes asked.
Ellis frowned and checked the log. "Says disabled for maintenance. Request logged three weeks ago. Victor Grant put it in. Said the wiring was throwing sparks and he didn't want the maids tripping the breaker."
"And no one fixed it?"
"No work order after that. I didn't catch it because the lobby and exterior still showed green. East wing's not my priority unless someone complains."
I felt my stomach drop. The east wing was where I'd been assigned for night turns, mopping the private hallway outside the guest suites. Victor had sent me there almost every night that month. He'd said it was quieter work and I'd get left alone. I realized I'd been left alone because no one could see.
Mr. Hayes noticed me in the doorway then. He didn't look surprised.
"You can come in," he said.
I stepped in and set the folder on the desk. My hands were shaking a little and I put them behind my back. He opened the folder. It was my personnel file. I hadn't known we even had those.
He flipped past the first page, past my application with Victor's initials in the corner where it said hired. There were three more files stacked beside it, all with the same initials.
"He controls this too?" Mr. Hayes asked Ellis, but he was looking at the papers.
Ellis leaned over. "Housing deposits, references. Yeah. Victor does all the intake for housekeeping. He holds the damage deposits for the garage apartments, writes the reference letters if someone wants to apply down in town. Most of the girls are on his recommendation. HR just stamps it."
Mr. Hayes shut the folder slowly. He didn't slam it. He just pressed his palm flat on top of it for a second and breathed out through his nose.
"What do you want me to do?" Ellis asked. "I can re-enable it tonight. Put a camera back online in ten minutes."
"Not that one. Not yet." Mr. Hayes looked at the black monitor again. "If you turn it back on now, he'll know we looked. Is there a way to cover that hallway legally without alerting him? A main house camera that already has a reason to be there?"
Ellis thought for a second. "We have a new dome for the north stairwell. It was approved last month, covers the stairwell and the mouth of the east hall at an angle. It's house security, not inside a private suite. No privacy issue. I can install it in the morning, log it as scheduled maintenance. It would catch anyone going into that wing from the main floor."
"Do that. Log it as routine. No email to staff except the scheduled maintenance notice that already goes out."
Ellis nodded and made a note. He didn't ask why. I was glad he didn't ask me anything.
When Ellis left to get the equipment, it was just me and Mr. Hayes in that small room. The monitors hummed. He slid my file back toward me like he was giving it back, even though it wasn't mine to keep.
"I'm moving you to days," he said. "Rosa's team. Main house, seven to three. You're not going back to the east wing at night."
I swallowed. "Victor makes the schedule. If he sees I've been moved without him -"
"He won't," he said. He turned to his laptop, typed something, and turned the screen so I could see. It was an email draft from HR, the automatic kind with the little company logo at the top. It said: STAFFING UPDATE - Day shift rotation effective 10/15: E. Morales assigned Main House Days (R. Alvarez lead). Night east wing coverage: J. Park. Routine rebalancing. No reply needed.
He hadn't sent it yet. His finger hovered over the send button.
"This looks like it came from the office, not from me," he said. "Everyone gets one of these every few weeks. Victor gets the same copy. No one will think it's about you."
He looked at me and waited. He wasn't telling me. He was asking if that was okay.
I nodded once. My throat was tight.
He hit send. The soft whoosh sound it made felt too loud in that room.
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"That's it for tonight," he said quietly. "Go get some rest. The new camera will be up before breakfast. You won't be alone in that hallway again."
I walked back to the garage apartment with the hallway light off so no one would see me from the kitchen windows, and for the first time that week I wasn't counting how many nights I had left on Victor's schedule. I was counting how many hours until the day shift started.
