“Do you have tracking enabled?”
I did.
We signed into my account from the study computer. The phone had been offline since the previous afternoon. Its last location was the estate.
Not outside it.
Marcus opened another set of camera feeds.
We followed Vanessa backward from the rear stairs. At 2:28, just before she left, she stopped in the mudroom. The camera angle showed only part of her body. She bent near a row of locked storage cabinets used for seasonal gear.
Then she stood and walked out.
Marcus called his head of security, a woman named Priya Shah, and asked her to come upstairs with the master cabinet key.
He did not mention Vanessa.
Five minutes later, Priya entered, saw me and Lily, and stopped. Marcus turned the monitor toward her.
Her expression became unreadable.
Cabinet twelve contained my phone.
It was wrapped in a gray cleaning cloth and pushed behind two boxes of winter gloves.
Priya placed it in an evidence sleeve without turning it on.
I watched her seal the bag.
“Can I have it back?” I asked.
“When our forensic team is finished,” Marcus said. Then he looked at me. “If you consent.”
The addition mattered.
For the first time all morning, someone was reminding himself that the phone belonged to me.
I nodded.
Marcus asked Marta to take Lily to breakfast in the staff kitchen. Lily resisted until I promised I would follow soon. Before she left, she looked at Marcus and whispered, “Don’t let mean lady take Mommy phone.”
Priya turned away to hide a smile.
Marcus did not.
“I won’t,” he said.
Once Lily was gone, the room changed.
Marcus pulled out his own phone and called Vanessa.
He put the call on speaker only after asking whether I was comfortable staying.
I said yes.
Vanessa answered on the third ring, cheerful and breathless. She said she was on her way to a floral appointment and asked whether he had eaten.
Marcus looked at the security image frozen on the monitor.
