“What if I go to prison?”
“Did you do it?”
“No.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about.”
“But I tried to cover it up to help Lyndsey. It makes me an accessories after that.”
Charlotte opened her mouth to correct Mina and then shut it. Accessories after that did sound less scary than accessory after the fact. Mina’s version made it sound like, if found guilty, she’d have to wear an ugly scarf for a year.
“Can you show me Mr. Miller’s room?” she asked instead.
Mina nodded and headed for the stairs. Charlotte followed her to the landing, flanked by a large window overlooking the back yard. She was about to mount the second half of the stairs when motion outside the window caught her eye. It was her own warped and wavy reflection on a shiny piece of flashing on the edge of the roof line outside. She waved to confirm it was in fact her, and noticed a camera mounted on the roof near the window.
“What does this camera see?” she asked.
Mina stopped and peered down at her from the stairs. “The back yard, little bit of the barn.”
“And Lyndsey lives over the barn, doesn’t she?”
Mina nodded.
“Does this camera keep a history somewhere?”
“There’s an app for it. It’s on my phone.”
“Can I see it? Or did the police take it?”
She frowned. “The police took my phone.” She paused and then raised her index finger to her cheek. “Oh, but the app’s on Kimber’s phone too. You can check that one.”
They climbed the remaining stairs.
“This is the door to the servant stairs,” said Mina, opening a door in the hall. Charlotte looked inside and saw nothing but a very narrow staircase heading into darkness below.
“Where does that come out?”
“In the hall off the kitchen between the girls’ rooms.”
“And the girls have access?”
“Yes. And Sheriff Carter found the rabbit right here on the first step.” Mina pointed down. There was black dust on the step where the crime techs had come back and dusted the area while Mina was incarcerated.
Mina left the door open and crossed the hall to open another door.
“This is the whelping room where I found Lyndsey with the puppies.”
Charlotte could tell by the sink and toilet that the room was really a spare bathroom, but a nest of soft dog beds had been built in the corner and the rest of the floor was lined with newspaper. The odor of dog poop hit her nostrils.
“I haven’t had a chance to clean,” said Mina.
“Where’s the mother dog?” she asked.
A sadness passed over Mina’s expression. “Miller’s Lady Crossing. She actually died birthing her last litter. Kimber was devastated. He loved that dog. She was a champion, you know.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Who fed the puppies?”
“I did.”
“Who walked the mother?”
Mina sighed. “I did.”
“Did Kimber ever leave this second floor?”
“No. It was getting difficult for him to get out of bed. His mind was slipping as fast as his body.”
“So it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that he did fall, as Lyndsey mentioned.”
“He fell all the time. That’s why I helped her. She was in such a panic and I didn’t want her to get in trouble for something I knew wasn’t her fault.”
“Can you show me his room?”
Mina walked to the next door down the hall and opened it. Inside, there was a bedroom decorated in browns and peaches and lined with outdated furniture. It looked as if it hadn’t been touched since the nineteen-nineties.
Blood stained the carpet near the bed and dark splatter covered the wall.
“How old was he?”
“Seventy-two.”
“And you’re his sister? You don’t look a day over—” Charlotte realized she was playing a dangerous game.
“I’m fifty-three. I was an oops if ever there was one.” Mina smiled. “People think it’s strange that I’d signed up to be his housekeeper, but they forget we were so far apart in age, it wasn’t like we ever even knew each other as brother as sister.” She walked inside and opened the top right drawer of the bureau to retrieve a phone. She handed it to Charlotte. “He loved me in his own way, though. He took care of me and I took care of him.”
Charlotte took the phone and found it unlocked. “Do you mind if I look through the camera files?”
Mina shrugged. “Go ahead. He didn’t really use that phone for anything except apps that turned on and off the lights.” She took a deep breath as if she’d needed a moment to find strength. “He’d make the smart bulbs downstairs blink when he needed me sometimes.”
“I’ll take this downstairs if you don’t mind.”
“Do you mind if I get a quick shower while you do that?” asked Mina.
“No, go ahead, of course.”
Charlotte returned to the kitchen, which she found outdated as well. Miller might have been a millionaire, but he didn’t care much for decorating.
She sat on a worn, vinyl-padded kitchen seat and clicked through Miller’s phone. Mina hadn’t been lying. There were very few apps installed, so it only took her a moment to identify the one that operated the camera. She scrolled through the daily log of motion sensor activity and found the day Miller died. There were nearly fifty entries.
The first shot only lasted about thirty seconds. Charlotte searched the yard for movement but saw nothing.
Must have been triggered by a bird. Whatever had moved past the lens had disappeared before the camera had time to register.
The next clip was the same, as was the next.
All birds?
Charlotte returned to the first and played it again. Something in Charlotte’s peripheral vision caught her attention.
What is that?
It took her a moment to realize what
