Chapter 3

"Did you find it?"

Detective Vance leaned forward, a hint of urgency in his tone.

I didn't say anything, just stared dead at the phone screen.

The cold glow of the screen washed over my face, and I could feel my blood slowly turning to ice.

In the security app's deadbolt logs, the exact time of every entry and exit was meticulously recorded.

November 29, 6:30 PM — Keypad unlocked (the time I got home from work tonight).

November 29, 8:15 AM — Unlocked from inside (the time I left for work this morning).

November 28, 6:45 PM — Keypad unlocked (when I got home last night).

November 28, 8:10 AM — Unlocked from inside (when I left yesterday morning).

I frantically swiped up the screen, my fingers leaving sweat smudges on the glass from pressing so hard.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Still nothing.

In the logs for November 28th, apart from my morning departure and evening return, there were zero unlock records in between.

"This isn't right..." I muttered, my voice so low I could barely hear myself.

"What is it, Mrs. Hayes?"

Catching my reaction, Detective Vance stepped right up beside me and looked down at my phone screen.

"Silas texted me yesterday afternoon. He said he swung by the house around 3 PM to put the Whole Foods groceries in the fridge."

I pointed to the blank gap on the screen, my finger trembling slightly. "But... the lock logs show that absolutely no one opened the door yesterday afternoon."

Detective Vance's expression turned grim.

He immediately grabbed his radio. "Dispatch tech units. I need them to tap into the Hayes residence's security system right now."

"Yeah, pull all the logs remotely."

Lowering the radio, he turned to me. "Mrs. Hayes, could there have been a glitch in the system?"

"Or did he use a physical backup key?"

"Impossible."

I shook my head, forcing myself to calm down.

As a data analyst, I have an ingrained instinct for system logs.

"Using a physical key with the 'Shield' system still triggers a mechanical sensor and leaves a record in the logs."

"Besides, if the system glitched, why are all my entry and exit logs perfectly intact, while only his mysteriously vanished?"

Just to be absolutely certain, I took a deep breath and dialed the 'Shield' security company's 24-hour customer service line.

The call connected quickly.

"Good evening, Mrs. Hayes. How can I help you today?"

The representative's voice was sweet and professional.

"I need to verify the unlock logs for my front door."

"My app is showing that from Tuesday night, November 26th, up until now, there hasn't been a single unlock record other than my own coming and going."

"Can you see any different data on your backend?"

"Could the system have failed to log it?"

The clacking of a keyboard echoed through the line for a dozen seconds or so.

"Mrs. Hayes, I've just verified the base logs on our cloud servers for you."

The rep's voice remained sweet, but to my ears, it felt as cold as an icebox. "The display on your app is completely accurate."

"In fact, according to our backend data, after your front door was locked at 10:05 PM on Tuesday, November 26th, aside from your own fingerprint and passcode verifications..."

She paused, seemingly double-checking the data.

"Ma'am, your front door has not been opened by anyone else since Tuesday."