Chapter 2 — Samantha pulls out the security app to check the front porch timeline
Oliver leaned in closer to look at the screen in Samantha’s hand.
His brow furrowed deeply.
“What are you pointing at?” Oliver asked, his defensive tone returning out of sheer confusion.
“That timestamp,” Samantha said, pointing a finger at the glowing corner of the display.
“It says 1:15 PM.”
“That’s when the driver dropped it off,” Oliver replied.
“Right,” Samantha agreed.
“But look at the tracking logs in the app menu.”
She swiped down on the screen to reveal the event history recorded by the motion sensor.
A list of digital entries populated the lower half of the application interface.
1:15 PM – Motion detected: Delivery driver.
1:30 PM – Motion detected: Front porch area.
1:45 PM – Heavy rain band hits the neighborhood.
Oliver stared at the middle entry on the list.
His eyes widened slightly.
“Wait a minute,” Oliver said, pointing at the screen.
“What is that 1:30 PM entry?”
“Exactly,” Samantha said quietly.
“Nobody was supposed to be at the front door between the drop-off and the storm.”
Chloe stopped crying, her tear-stained face lifting toward her parents.
“I told you I was in my room,” Chloe whispered, her voice shaking.
“I didn’t go anywhere near the front door.”
Samantha tapped the 1:30 PM event log to load the video clip attached to that specific timestamp.
The screen flickered as the application buffered the footage from the cloud server.
The loading screen on Samantha’s phone displayed a file icon for the exact hour the rainstorm peaked.