Chapter 4
The first fall had occurred at Preston’s townhouse.
Rocco sent an independent investigator there before anyone could remove anything else.
Six weeks had passed.
There would be no perfect crime-scene reconstruction.
Still, records remained.
The exterior camera overlooking the rear steps had stopped recording for thirty-eight minutes that evening.
The outage was not mechanical.
Someone had manually disconnected its power source.
Preston claimed contractors were working nearby.
No contractors had been scheduled.
Then came the maintenance records.
Three days after Audrey’s fall, a property manager replaced a loosened section of the decorative stair runner.
The work order came from Brenda.
Rocco read it twice.
“She doesn't live there.”
The property manager looked uncomfortable.
“She said she handled household matters while Mrs. Reed recovered.”
Audrey had never authorized that.
The old runner was gone.
The camera footage was gone.
Physical evidence was almost gone.
But behavior remained.
Rocco requested phone and household logs through counsel rather than sending his own people to seize anything.
His attorney noticed.
“You're learning restraint.”
“Don't sound so pleased.”
The records showed Brenda entered the townhouse forty minutes before Audrey’s planned departure.
She left twelve minutes after the ambulance.
Preston had claimed he was not home when Audrey fell.
That was true.
His car and phone were across town.
Rocco stared at the timeline.
Preston could have planned it without being there.
Brenda could have executed it.
But Gary’s memory bothered him.
She wasn’t supposed to get back up that fast.
That did not sound like someone hoping Audrey bruised herself.
Rocco returned to the hospital.
Audrey was sitting up eating soup.
He told her what they found.
She closed her eyes.
“I remember Brenda being there.”
“You never said that.”
“I didn't see her.”
Audrey looked down.
“I smelled her perfume.”
Brenda wore an unusually strong jasmine fragrance.
Audrey remembered smelling it near the back hallway shortly before she fell.
At the time she assumed Brenda had visited earlier.
Now another memory surfaced.
Preston had called Audrey five minutes before the fall.
He kept her on the phone.
Asked where she was.
Asked whether her bags were packed.
Asked whether she was taking the front stairs or the rear.
May you like
Audrey looked at her father.
“He knew exactly where I was.”
