Chapter 7 - The First Proof
Detectives obtained Juliette's phone records two days later.
The result changed the investigation.
She had called Estelle nineteen times during the month before the pool incident.
She had deleted every call from her device.
The carrier records preserved them.
Then came the messages.
Not the content.
The metadata.
Juliette and Estelle had communicated repeatedly through an encrypted application.
Most messages were gone.
One backup was not.
Daniel recovered a fragment from Juliette's cloud account.
E must be removed before recognition.
Christopher read it twice.
Naomi said nothing.
He asked:
“Could E mean something else?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe it does?”
“No.”
Neither did he.
Then Daniel found a payment.
$75,000.
Sent to Juliette three days before Emma fell into the pool.
Memo:
Consulting completion.
Christopher stared at the screen.
May you like
His anger had gone beyond rage.
It had become clarity.
