“It appears that way. Which doesn’t jive with the crime scene and the violent whip marks noted on Cameron Young’s body.”

Avery and Walt continued to stare at the monitor. The spanking horse sat in the otherwise empty shot of the studio. Victoria and Cameron had disappeared a few seconds earlier.

“Why didn’t they stop the video when they were done?” Avery asked.

“What do you mean?”

“They were supposedly creating a sex tape to watch back later for their own kicks. But when things went too far and the fun ended, why didn’t one of them stop the camera?”

The screen suddenly went black. Avery noticed the confused look on Walt’s face as he leaned over and tapped the mouse pad to rewind the video to the spot where Victoria and Cameron walked off screen. He pointed to the timer on the bottom of the screen and then fast-forwarded the video until just before the screen went blank.

“Sixty seconds,” he said. “Exactly sixty seconds.”

“What’s that mean?” Avery asked.

“Motion activated cameras are triggered when the sensor detects movement. They continue recording as long as motion is detected. When the movement stops triggering the sensor, the camera shuts off after sixty seconds.”

Avery looked over at him, and then it hit her. “That’s why the shot was off centered. They didn’t know they were being recorded.”

CHAPTER 48 - Manhattan, NY Sunday, July 4, 2021

CHAPTER 48

Manhattan, NY Sunday, July 4, 2021

THEY BOTH NEEDED A BREAK AFTER WATCHING THE VIDEO OF VICTORIA Ford and Cameron Young. Avery stepped into the bathroom to freshen up after Walt suggested they find a proper bar that served proper drinks. It wasn’t the video that had him thirsting for alcohol, but the conclusions they had made during the viewing. Watching the video today, far removed from his role as lead detective on the case, and without the enormous pressures he felt at the time to find answers, it was easy to see that the video had been recorded in secret. It was easy to see that neither Victoria nor Cameron knew they were being recorded.

Walt lifted the plastic evidence bag that had contained the thumb drive and read the writing scrawled across it, indicating the date and time the evidence had been logged. The label on the bag also included the location where the thumb drive had been found—in the desk drawer of Tessa Young’s office at the Catskills mansion. Why, Walt wondered, would Cameron Young make a sex video of himself and his mistress and then keep it in his wife’s desk drawer?