Going through the timeline of July 18th, we see that by the end of the day Watts was looking into vacation rentals in Myrtle Beach. This suggests the calls earlier in the day was Shan’ann telling him she refused to see his family.

This was two weeks before Watts was due to join his family in North Carolina.

We know this change of plan weighed heavily on Watts. Watts told investigators on February 18th he was angry at Shan’ann for separating him from his family. One wonders what he meant exactly, and for when exactly. Did he mean his children, his parents, specifically after Nut Gate, or did Nut Gate remind him of the enmity that had persisted throughout his entire marriage, including the wedding?

One aspect that bothered him most was how Shan’ann’s grudge had now rippled around to include his father as well. This was like Watts losing an important psychological anchor, and by doing that, he no longer wanted to be a father or a husband for or with Shan’ann. Of course, Kessinger also provided plenty of fuel for this psychology. She was also encouraging him tacitly or overtly not to be a husband.

On July 18th Watts seemed to realize for the first time he would be heading back to the wolf, and he’d need to cover his tracks if he wanted to keep the affair going. He wanted to keep his treasure trove of sexy pictures, but how? The massive transfer of semi-naked images on July 18th was the first seditious move, where Watts deliberately put in place a system to deceive and undermine his wife and family.

Think about the Secret Calculator as an analogy for Watts as well. He was using a Secret Calculator, a secret password, using something in plain sight to hide information that could be devastating to his wife, children, and his own future if he wasn’t careful. Shan’ann might take the phone but be none the wiser. This gave him at least the seed of an idea. What if he could do something…but hidden by technology…Vivint sensors, cell phone messages, GPS tracking…but hidden in plain sight, hidden inside an average morning going to work like he always did?

The Secret Calculator is an analogy for Watts himself, and who he started becoming in terms of his criminal capacities as soon as he’d installed it. He is a Secret Calculator too, now.

And this got the ball rolling. He didn’t want to go there, he didn’t want to be there, he wished he could make it disappear so he could get back to the new love of his life. And this is the thought that he sat with quietly, ruminating, while Shan’ann continued to confidently change plans and call the shots.