Chapter 4Not My Husband In My Bed

The world stopped. My brain felt like it had short-circuited.

"What do you mean?" I asked, my voice sounding like it was coming from miles away. "Detective, you must be joking."

Cassidy didn't smile. She just watched me. "Naomi, I know this is a lot to process. but cameras don't lie."

She turned a laptop screen toward me. The video was grainy but clear. It showed me walking up my driveway at 8:00 PM on April 1st. I was alone. I was holding the exact box I’d found the hand in.

I stared at the screen, my memories fracturing. I remembered Jamie handing it to me. I remembered us laughing. But here I was, alone in the dark.

"The footage... someone must have tampered with it," I whispered, desperate. "If he could impersonate my husband, he could hack a security system. People do that all the time, right?"

Cassidy sighed. "Naomi, you can change a timestamp, but you can't fake the physics of a person walking through a frame. That’s you. And you’re alone."

She leaned in closer. "Are you trying to tell me that a killer picked a box you had already handled, dodged every camera in the suburbs, slipped into your house, and left no trace? Just to frame a housewife?"

Her words felt like ice water over my head. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I knew what I saw. I knew he was there.

Then, a spark of memory.

"I took a photo!" I shouted.