Chapter 6 - Hard Drive Evidence
Eleven minutes. That was all it took for two Travis County Sheriff squad cars to pull up to the front of my house, light bars flashing red and blue against the pecan trees.
From my kitchen window, I watched Mom practically sprint down the driveway to meet the two deputies as they stepped out of their cruisers. Deputy Miller, a veteran officer with a salt-and-pepper mustache, and a younger female deputy whose nametag read Flores.
Mom was gesturing wildly, wiping invisible tears, pointing toward the backyard.
I unlocked the back patio door and walked out into the humid air just as the two officers rounded the corner of the house, followed by Mom, Sierra, and half the wedding party.
“That’s her!” Mom shrieked, pointing at me. “That’s Callie! Arrest her before she hurts someone else!”
Deputy Miller held up a hand. “Ma’am, step back. Let us assess the situation.” His eyes swept over the scene—the eighty silent guests watching from beneath the tent, the bride with mascara smeared down her cheeks, and me, standing soaking wet, holding my ruined right arm against my ribs.
“Evening,” Deputy Miller said, his tone neutral and cautious. “Who is the homeowner here?”
“I am,” I said clearly. “Callie Mercer. This is my property.”
Mom interrupted immediately. “She’s the homeowner, Officer, but she’s the one who committed the assault! She attacked my daughter, the bride! Look at her dress! Callie tried to pull her into the pool and ended up falling in herself!”
Deputy Flores stepped closer to me, taking in my pale skin, my shallow breathing, and the visible deformity of my right shoulder joint. “Ma’am, have you been drinking tonight?”
“I haven’t had a drop of alcohol all day,” I replied, my voice steady despite the agony radiating down to my fingertips. “I have a medical condition—a torn rotator cuff that was healing. When Sierra shoved me into the deep end, my shoulder impacted the concrete coping under the water. It’s dislocated, and the tendon is likely ruptured.”
“She’s lying!” Sierra shouted, stepping forward from behind Tanner. She looked stunning in the flashing police lights, a picture-perfect damsel in distress. “Officer, I didn't touch her! She slipped because she was drunk and tried to grab me on her way down! Ask anyone here! Kenzie saw it!”
Kenzie nodded vigorously from the patio steps. “Yes! Absolutely! Callie went crazy and lunged at her!”
Deputy Miller looked at Sierra, then at the guests, many of whom were nodding along simply to appease the bride and mother. Then he looked back at me.
“It’s a lot of witnesses saying the same thing, Miss Mercer,” Deputy Miller said carefully. “Do you have anyone who can corroborate your version of events?”
“I do,” I said.
Mom let out a cruel, barking laugh. “Who? Your imaginary friends? Nobody is on your side, Callie!”
I didn’t look at Mom. I pointed my left index finger up at the soffit beneath the second-story roof overhang, right above the patio door.
A small black dome with a tiny, blinking blue LED light was mounted directly against the cedar siding.
“High-definition Lorex security camera,” I told Deputy Miller. “Night vision. 4K optical zoom. Directional audio microphone. It covers the entire pool deck, from the diving board to the patio steps. It uploads every second to an off-site cloud server with an unalterable timecode.”
The silence that fell over the backyard was different this time. It wasn't awkward. It was absolute, suffocating terror.
Sierra’s mouth fell open. The fake tears on her cheeks seemed to freeze.
Mom’s face went from angry red to a sickly, ash gray. “You... you put cameras in the backyard? Without telling us?”
May you like
“On my house?” I looked at Mom for the first time. “I can put cameras wherever I damn well please. Deputy Miller, Deputy Flores... if you’d follow me into the living room, the monitor is already queued up.”
***
