Chapter 11 - Uncle David
David did not run.
He opened door when police arrived.
He admitted working Northstar.
He admitted having old access credentials.
He denied speaking through mansion camera.
“Why hide employment from Ethan?”
“Jonathan asked me to.”
Before death, Jonathan became concerned prototype security was being altered.
He asked accountant brother David to quietly audit service-access billing.
David found remote support hours billed to homes whose owners never requested service.
That suggested unauthorized access.
Jonathan died before investigation completed.
David continued as contractor.
He discovered Martin and Victor had preserved remote channels for premium clients, ostensibly emergency support.
But somebody else accessed channels after hours.
David suspected Samuel.
Samuel suspected Victor.
Everyone suspected everyone.
David tried trace.
Unit Fourteen scandal exposed enough to collapse company before full answer.
David withdrew.
“Did you create EMERCER_ADMIN?”
“No.”
“Use it?”
“Once.”
“When?”
Unit Fourteen night.
David accessed account to see where commands originated.
That explained ring in footage.
He was man at control terminal.
Why hide?
Unauthorized access could itself be illegal.
He feared becoming scapegoat.
Did he leak confidential recording?
No.
He copied it as evidence but someone else leaked.
Did he control Ethan’s camera now?
David surrendered laptop.
No connection.
Phone.
Router.
Cloud.
Nothing.
But he recognized current voice phrase.
“Claire, don’t say another word.”
Jonathan used exact phrase jokingly during engineering tests?
Not enough.
Then David explained three taps.
Not generic Northstar.
Jonathan used three taps on microphone before speaking during hardware tests.
Ryan adopted it in tribute.
Someone using taps wanted Ethan think Jonathan.
Why?
“Because Jonathan found them.”
“Found who?”
David hesitated.
“A private monitoring program.”
Northstar had a small corporate-security contract before consumer launch.
Project Sentinel.
It tested remote monitoring for vacant luxury properties—construction sites, model homes, corporate residences.
No families were supposed to be present.
Jonathan discovered some Sentinel credentials migrated into consumer platform.
That created dangerous persistent access.
He demanded deletion.
David believed one administrator secretly retained them.
Who?
Jonathan never told him.
He wrote name in audit ledger.
Where ledger?
Missing after Jonathan died.
David believed Ethan unknowingly received it among father’s belongings.
Blue box voice asking where Daddy keeps box may have been searching not Northstar recorder originally—
but Jonathan’s audit ledger.
Was it blue?
David nodded.
“Jonathan kept it in a blue leather document box.”
Emma looked at Ethan.
He remembered one.
After father died, boxes went to storage.
Years later, Ethan donated most paperwork.
But one blue leather box remained at Claire’s apartment briefly when Ethan moved.
Claire froze.
“I had it.”
“What happened?”
“I gave it to someone.”
“Who?”
Claire’s voice dropped.
“Ryan.”
Six months earlier.
Before camera installation.
Ryan had not contacted Claire only for service key.
May you like
He had contacted her because he already knew she once possessed Jonathan Mercer’s missing blue box.
And Ryan never told police that.
