When I returned, Detective Patel slid the flash drive into an evidence envelope.

“Ms. Grant,” she said, “you need independent counsel. Cooperation does not erase potential exposure.”

“I understand.”

Lila looked at me. “There’s something else. Gertrude’s apartment has cameras throughout. Tristan installed them. The system stores thirty days online. Last night, he watched you enter the study.”

“Then why didn’t he stop me?”

“Because the camera in the study doesn’t record audio. He saw you kneeling by the trash and thought you were gathering it. When you texted that you’d just started, he left the building.”

The dark SUV.

“Was he upstairs while I was there?”

“For the first few minutes. He used the service stairs. He wanted a photograph of you holding the documents. Something he could call proof.”

My fear at the soft scrape returned as anger. He had been close enough to hear me breathe.

Claire leaned forward. “Can the footage be deleted remotely?”

“Yes. Tristan has the administrator password.”

Detective Patel was already on her phone.

Within an hour, a judge signed an emergency preservation order. The Marlowe’s management provided lobby and elevator footage. The security vendor froze the cloud account before Tristan could erase it.

At 11:42, the first export arrived.

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