They were not some elaborate surveillance operation aimed at my own household; I had not installed them to spy on the people who lived and worked in my home, and the thought of using them that way is distasteful to me.

They were an ordinary security measure for an ordinary reason, the kind any homeowner might have, and their whole purpose was to make a record that existed independent of anyone’s word, mine included.

That was the quiet virtue of the thing, as it turned out.

The footage did not care that Vanessa was wealthy or that Teresa was the housekeeper.

It did not weigh their credibility or consider whose story was more convenient to believe.