Chapter 2
Officer Miller mounted the final wooden step of the porch, his sharp gaze sweeping across the tense group of gathered adults. His eyes lingered for a brief second on David, who still stood with his hands half-filled with grocery bags, before settling squarely on Claire. The blonde woman pulled her white dress tighter around her shivering frame, her arms crossed defensively over her chest as she stared up at the officer. The woman in the light blue blouse, who introduced herself as Detective Hayes with a crisp flip of her clipboard, stepped past the uniform and stood directly in front of the locked door.
"Good afternoon," Detective Hayes said, her voice dropping into a steady, neutral professional register. "We received an automated wellness alert routed from the medical monitoring terminal inside. We need immediate, unhindered access to the interior premises. Who is the primary resident of record here?"
Claire swallowed hard, her throat painfully dry. "I am. My name is Claire Vance. That’s my husband, David. We just stepped out to grab provisions for a family gathering, and the smart lock system seemed to glitch the moment we tried to re-enter. It’s an electrical fault, nothing more."
Hayes didn’t blink. She turned her head slightly to glance at the doorbell camera lens glowing softly just above Claire’s shoulder, silently confirming that the live digital link was active and monitored from a remote location. "Mrs. Vance, system logs don't trigger automated panic dispatches simply due to a drained battery or a forgotten numerical sequence. Our system flagged a forced integrity breach followed by an immediate emergency ping from a secondary device."
May you like
David stepped forward, setting the remaining grocery bags down with a sharp clatter on the worn porch boards. "Listen, officer, this is entirely a mistake. My sister-in-law, Sarah, is a nurse who watches over our medical setup remotely. She’s overly cautious, almost pathologically so. She probably saw us struggling with the keypad and panicked, calling you folks for no good reason. We just want to get inside, put these groceries away, and settle down."
Miller stepped closer, his boots heavy on the wood. He could see the micro-tremors in Claire’s hands and the rigid posture of the guests standing near the porch railing. "If it’s just a simple glitch, sir, you won't mind letting us verify the interior status ourselves. Step aside, please. We have a protocol to follow when a remote medical terminal goes dark mid-alert."
