Chapter 8: The Things That Could Be Proven
The officer who took their statement was calm and unhurried.
She listened to everything.
She looked at the camera footage on Olivia's phone.
She looked at the anonymous email.
She looked at the letter Marcus had sent to Clara's employer years ago.
"The stroller incident," she said.
"The footage is clear.
That gives us something to work with in terms of reckless endangerment.
The anonymous email is harder.
Proving origin takes time."
"What about Marcus?" Adrian asked.
"If he coordinated with her in sending harassing communications, that's a separate matter.
Do you have any direct contact between them?"
"Not yet," Clara said.
"Get it if you can.
Screenshots.
Timestamps.
Anything that shows communication between them around the time these events occurred." The officer looked at Clara.
"You said she had a photograph of a legal envelope with your name on it.
Do you know how she got that?"
"The only person who could have given it to her was Marcus.
He was still in contact with people from that period of my life.
He could have had someone photograph my mail."
"That would constitute surveillance.
Possibly stalking, depending on duration and intent." The officer made a note.
"I want you to document everything from this point forward.
Every message.
Every contact attempt.
Every account she might have access to — change the passwords today."
After she left, the house felt different.
Quieter.
Like something had shifted on its axis.
Olivia stayed for dinner.
The four of them — Adrian, Clara, Olivia, and Emma in her high chair — sat around the table and talked about ordinary things for a while.
What Emma had eaten that day.
Whether the garden needed attention.
A film Olivia had seen.
Then Olivia said: "She's going to try again."
"Yes," Clara said.
"So what do we do?"
"We find the connection between her and Marcus.
If it exists, it leaves a trail." Clara looked at Adrian.
"You said you have a mutual friend.
Someone who knew Vanessa from university and also knew Marcus's social circle."
"Patrick," Adrian said.
"He's not close to either of them anymore.
But he might know something."
"Can you call him?"
"Tomorrow."
Olivia reached across and touched Clara's hand.
"I'm sorry I didn't see it sooner.
She was always a little too interested in what you were doing.
I noticed it and I told myself it was just her personality."
"You showed the footage," Clara said.
"That's what mattered."
Emma chose that moment to push her bowl off the high chair tray.
It landed with a crash that made everyone jump, and then Emma laughed — a full, delighted, completely unself-conscious laugh — and the tension in the room broke like a wave.
Adrian picked up the bowl.
He was smiling despite himself.
"She has your timing," he said to Clara.
Clara looked at her daughter laughing in her chair.
"She has her own timing," she said.
"She always has."
That night, after Emma was asleep, Adrian found Clara standing in the doorway of the nursery.
He stood beside her.
They watched Emma breathe.
"Patrick called back," he said quietly.
"While you were putting her down."
Clara turned to look at him.
"He said Vanessa reached out to Marcus eight months ago.
He saw them together at a dinner in the city.
He didn't think anything of it at the time."
Eight months.
The same month the security camera had been installed.
"She knew about the camera," Clara said.
"No.
She found out about it eight months ago.
Patrick said Marcus mentioned it.
He'd been watching our social media.
Adrian had posted a photo — the camera was visible in the background."
Clara was quiet for a moment.
"So she built the whole plan around it.
Knowing the camera was there.
Knowing that if she pushed the stroller, the footage would exist."
"And knowing that if the footage existed, she needed a counter-narrative ready before it played." Adrian exhaled.
"She didn't panic that night.
She executed."
May you like
Clara looked back at Emma.
"Then so do we," she said.
