of inspiration. “There were security cameras! Can you request the video from that night at Ouimet’s house? It might not be much, but at least it’ll shed some doubt on the story…”
Nodding, Frank wrote it down in his notebook.
“Oh! Oh! And there was a woman. A blonde woman… late twenties or early thirties. She was house-sitting for someone on the third floor of the condo building. Max was incredibly rude to her… She would definitely remember that. This was just a week ago, the day of my arrest. Find her and she’ll tell you that Max wasn’t locked in some damn room. Find her and you’ll find the truth.”
Tuesday, November 22nd
Crane sat on the small cot in his holding cell, watching the video on Frank’s tablet. It showed a man walking along the path between the two swimming pools behind Marc Ouimet’s mansion. Then the figure stopped, stared up at the camera, and tried to hide his face before stepping out of the frame. It was Crane, but Max was nowhere to be seen on the video.
“It’s… zoomed in. Cropped maybe. He was there with me. Can’t you test to see if the video was tampered with?”
“Look at the timestamp,” Frank said, pointing to the bottom corner of the screen.
Frowning, Crane shook his head. The video was taken four days before the orgy at the mansion.
“That’s impossible,” he said. “It has to be faked.”
“I checked with the security company. You know what they said? They told me that the day you say you showed up there with Édouard Duvernay, the security cameras were off—Ouimet hosts some kind of highly private event once a month and relies on security personnel at his mansion for that night rather than cameras, ergo there is no video for that night. We have Mrs. Ouimet’s testimony that you were there, but this video puts you at their residence before that. Now, because of this new evidence, they’re adding trespassing to the list of charges.”
Crane watched the video again, his heart in the pit of his stomach. There was no mistaking that it was him on the path, and he looked cagey, just like a trespasser. Dejected, he handed Frank his tablet back and leaned back against the wall, his eyes closed.
“And… the blonde woman from the third floor?”
“I don’t think there is a blonde woman.”
Balling his fists, Crane sat up. “This is my life, Frank! Are the police looking for her at all?”
“Yeah. But… It’s not high on their list of priorities. There’re twenty condos on the third floor, half of them belong to people who rent them out regularly on Airbnb. Who knows who this friend was that you say she was house-sitting for?”
“But there’s security cameras in every hall… if we look at the videos… oh, wait… wait… no…” Crane wanted to cry. “Let me guess: the condo uses the same security company as Ouimet does.”
Frank reached into the accordion folder he was carrying. It took him nearly five minutes, but he finally found the records he was looking for.
“Yes. And in fact, Mr. Ouimet owns it. It’s a subsidiary of OuiCorp, just like Talis.”
“Of course it is.”
“Crane… Have you considered that this elaborate conspiracy is all in your head? Look at what Dr. Bélanger and Dr. Durant said.” Frank pulled out a few sheets stapled together. “Dennis Crane seems to be under extreme stress… Dennis Crane began acting erratically… Yes, it is my opinion that Dr. Crane is capable of these crimes… He spoke of treating a patient who was addicted to a younger man, I believe he was speaking of himself.”
“I’m not crazy,” Crane whispered. “I’m not.”
Frank let out a sigh and actually sounded sympathetic when he said, “Well, I doubt you’d get off easy, even if you were crazy. There’re a lot of folks who want to see you suffer for this—just be glad there’s no more death penalty.” Then he tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at Crane. “Tell me something: let’s say that ‘Max’ really is the manipulating little shit you make him out to be, and you knew this about him from the beginning… why’d you stick around? Why let him fuck up your life?”
“Because…” Crane closed his eyes, dismissing the incriminating video recording Max had taken of him at the clinic. It had never been about that. He thought about the tiny part of him that believed Max couldn’t possibly have done all of this to him, the part that still thought he was in