The cameras themselves were not a plot.

That was the thing people got wrong when the story eventually leaked in fragments to people who enjoyed that kind of story.

He had not installed them to trap anyone.

They had gone in the previous December, after a home invasion two properties over on the same road — a couple in their seventies tied to chairs in their own kitchen for four hours while men emptied a wall safe.

Chadworth had read the police summary and had upgraded everything within the month: exterior perimeter, gate optics, glass sensors, and thirty-one interior units placed by a consultant with a floor plan, covering every public room and hallway in the house and none of the bedrooms or bathrooms, because there were lines the consultant would not cross and Chadworth had not asked him to.