Lotty inhaled sharply as she stared into Nikki’s eyes. What could Nikki be doing here in a room full of monitors showing nearly every room of Lotty’s home? There was one explanation, but Lotty couldn’t believe it. Nikki opened her arms out wide, trying to embrace Lotty, but Lotty slowly inched away. Nikki stared at her, her eyebrows furrowing. Ty pulled his hand from Lotty’s grip and ran to Nikki. He threw his little arms around her legs. Somehow Lotty felt like he was betraying her by running to Nikki.

“What’s going on, Lotty? Where have you been? I was so worried.” Nikki gushed.

A cynical laugh escaped Lotty’s lips. She’d spent thousands of hours with this woman. This friend. She’d poured out her soul to her. Laughed. Trusted. What did this mean? Why was she spying on their house? 

Nikki picked Ty up in a tight hug. “Oh honey, I’ve been so worried about you.” She kissed his cheek. No, Lotty would not let her touch her baby. She grabbed Ty out of Nikki’s arms and pulled him into her own.

“Don’t touch him,” Lotty said, her voice a raspy whisper.

Nikki stared at her wide-eyed before finding her voice. “What’s going on with you? What happened?”

“You tell me,” Lotty said, thinking of all the times she’d left her sweet boys with this woman.

“I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for days. I thought something horrible must have happened? Where’s Jason?”

Lotty backed away. Ignoring her questions, she motioned to the monitors. “How long have you had these here? Was this why Jocelyn’s house was burned down?” The thought made her sick.

Nikki glanced at the monitors, acting like this was the first time she’d seen them. Lotty was torn between wanting to look closer at the screens and wanting to run as far away as she could. She inched backwards as she watched Nikki, who looked engrossed by the monitors. She stared at one for several seconds before moving to the next one. It seemed odd behavior for someone who’d been in here before. Then again, it seemed Nikki was a fantastic actress. Lotty didn’t know what to think of her.

“I don’t get it,” Nikki said. “Are these live feeds? And why are they here?”

“I don’t know,” Lotty said, searching Nikki’s face for any sign she was lying. Was is possible she really didn’t know what was going on? “Why are they here?”

“Lotty, I’ve never seen these before. You thought I did this?” She stepped toward Lotty and the boys. Lotty stepped back, but not before Nikki set her hand on Lotty’s arm. “Look, I don’t know what happened to you over the past few days, but you have to know you can trust me. I don’t know anything about these other than they freak me out and I want to get out of this place.”

Lotty nodded, wanting desperately to believe her closest friend. Nikki took the opportunity to grab Lotty and hug her. She didn’t return the hug. “So, what are you doing here?” Lotty demanded.

“I was looking for Brent. No one has seen him all afternoon, but Michael just told me that when he got off the bus this afternoon, he saw Brent coming out of here.”

“Brent was here?” Lotty leaned her back against the wall and slid down to the floor to sit while she tried to process the new information. “So, he knew about these? The cops must have found them and he was looking into it, right?”

Nikki stared, but as Lotty continued to watch her and wait for an answer, tears came to Nikki’s eyes.

“What is it, Nik?”

Nikki wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “I don’t know. Brent. He’s been off. I want to believe he had nothing to do with this, that he was as surprised to find them as we were, but what if he is involved? And not as a cop?”

“Brent? What do you mean?”

“I mean, he’s been so edgy lately. He gets mad about every little thing and he’s been so worked up about you guys leaving. I thought that it was genuine concern, but then he freaked out about that cabinet I gave you. He’s asked about it like fifty times in the last three days.”

“The cabinet?”

“Yeah, the one I gave you that you keep in the garage.”

Lotty shook her head, more confused than ever. “The one you gave me is in the attic. The one in the garage is the one we already had with the broken drawer.”

Nikki wiped her eyes again. “Okay, well wherever it is. He hadn’t realized I’d given it to you until a couple of months ago and he got really worked up over it, saying I needed to check with him before I gave our valuables away. It was an old file cabinet from Walmart, hardly a valuable.”

Ty walked to Nikki and leaned against her leg. He grabbed her hand. Nikki smiled at him and squeezed his hand before continuing. “Anyway, he never said much more about it until this week. He kept yelling at me over and over and asking if I’d done anything with it before I gave it to you. He was a crazy person. He’d call me every hour asking if I’d heard from you, telling me I better not lie to him. Then today he disappears and Michael sees him coming out of an old burned house filled with monitors of your house. Something’s up.”

“It probably all has to do with a case that we can’t know about or something...” Lotty trailed off, unable to think of a good explanation. “But why would he care so much about the cabinet?” As soon as she’d asked the question, it hit her. The building permits.  

“He doesn’t,” a deep voice answered, sending shivers up Lotty’s spine, “when someone’s removed the important documents and hidden them.”

Lotty pulled Aiden tight against her body. She turned to look directly into the barrel of a gun. Brent’s hands were steady, his face red, though the monitors’ glow gave it a sickly blue hue. Lotty met Brent’s eyes, eyes she didn’t recognize. Though normally soft and blue, tonight they were black and beady.

“Brent!” Nikki screamed. “What are you thinking?” Her tears came faster as she shrieked. She covered Ty’s eyes and moved toward Lotty. “What’s gotten into you?” She took Aiden from Lotty’s arms and moved both boys toward the door.

“Stop, Nikki. You’re not going anywhere right now.”

“Yes, I am. I’m getting these boys outside and getting some help before you do something you regret.” 

Brent took a deep breath and turned the gun until it was pointed at his wife. “Don’t do this, Nik. Everything I did, I did for us, for our family.”

Nikki’s eyes widened in horror. She shook her head. “Did what? What exactly is it that you’ve done?” 

“I did what I needed to so our kids could grow up in a nice home and my family has stayed safe because I’ve stayed smart. Now bring the boys back here and sit down.” He pointed to the floor and moved closer to Lotty. “Don’t think this isn’t killing me, because it is.” He looked at Nikki pleadingly. “I love you.”

Nikki snorted, but Brent ignored her and turned to Lotty. “Where are the permits?”

She shook her head. “Permits?” Her mind filled with images of the folder in the van, but she tried not to let her realization show.

“Lotty, there are some very powerful people that are quite angry with you right now. You need to give me those permits.”

She feigned her best confused expression, but as she did so, pieces were finally coming together in her mind. He’d been upset about the file cabinet. He wanted those permits. When her house was robbed, her desk had been torn apart. When the garage was burned, the file cabinet from the garage had gone missing.

“You burned down our garage!” Realizing one of her closest friends had betrayed her gave her a new wave of courage and she continued, “Does that mean you did this to Jocelyn’s? Why the grave robberies? What’s the point of all of this, Brent?”

Aiden started crying. Ty whimpered and buried his face in Nikki’s shoulder

“It’s not that simple, Lotty. Now give me the permits.” Brent tightened his grip on the gun.

Ty scooted closer to Nikki and, in his best attempt to be quiet, said, “He’s scary today.” 

“Nikki, shut those kids up. Lotty, permits.”

“What permits?” Lotty asked.

Brent raised the butt of the gun over her head. There was a sharp pain and everything went dark.”