Chapter 7 - THE ELEVEN-SECOND CALL
The call had not been saved.
But carrier records proved it happened.
12:32 a.m.
Eleven seconds.
Victor to Bianca.
Bianca said she heard Elena.
One word.
“Andrew.”
Then something struck the phone.
Call ended.
Victor later deleted the record from his device.
But deletion is not disappearance.
The question became:
Why would Elena say Andrew’s name?
Was she identifying her attacker?
Calling to him?
Warning Victor?
We returned to the house.
The Langley residence sat in Lincoln Park.
Five bedrooms.
Stone facade.
Perfect landscaping.
The place looked ordinary from the street.
Inside, I felt Elena everywhere.
Her books.
Her coffee mug.
A framed ultrasound photograph still on the refrigerator.
I had to walk away from it.
Reed examined the rear staircase.
Elena had been found there.
But blood evidence suggested the real assault began near the upstairs study.
Luminol testing showed cleaned traces.
One pattern near the desk.
Another on the door frame.
Then the biggest discovery.
A partial shoe impression.
Luxury men’s loafer.
Size eleven.
Victor wore size ten.
Andrew wore eleven.
Andrew’s attorney dismissed it.
Thousands of men wore similar shoes.
True.
Then we found a photograph from the funeral.
Andrew standing behind my mother.
Black loafers.
Same rare Italian model.
Still circumstantial.
But accumulating.
Andrew changed his story.
First he was never there.
Then he was there after Victor called.
Now he claimed he entered at 12:45.
Traffic analysis showed his SUV nearby at 11:41.
He had been in the area more than an hour earlier.
Why lie?
Because he was inside.
Andrew eventually offered his version.
Victor called him after Elena returned home.
Said she had files.
Said she planned to go federal.
Andrew went over to persuade her not to.
Elena refused.
According to Andrew, Victor became violent.
Grabbed her.
Elena tried to run.
Victor shoved her into the study wall.
She hit her head.
Andrew claimed he tried to intervene.
Then Elena ran toward the stairs.
Victor chased her.
She fell.
Andrew insisted Victor never intentionally pushed her down the staircase.
“Then why call cleaners?”
“Victor panicked.”
“Why didn’t you call 911?”
“I told him to.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“You had a phone.”
Andrew said nothing.
“What did you do?”
“I left.”
A lie.
His phone remained in the area until 3:31.
He stayed almost the entire time.
Then Reed asked,
“What happened before she reached the stairs?”
Andrew looked away.
Something was missing.
Autopsy findings showed an injury inconsistent with a simple wall impact.
Dr. Benson believed Elena had been struck by a hard object.
Not necessarily intentionally lethal.
But significant.
We searched the study again.
Several decorative objects had been removed before police documented the room.
Elena’s interior designer gave us old photos.
On a shelf stood a heavy bronze horse sculpture.
It was absent from the evidence inventory.
Where was it?
Victor claimed Elena donated it.
No record.
Andrew claimed he never noticed it.
Then Premier Residential Recovery records revealed the cleaners removed one sealed trash bag heavier than the others.
Jamal remembered metal tearing through the plastic.
The bag went to a private disposal facility.
Most waste was long gone.
But the facility kept surveillance footage.
At 5:11 a.m., a Premier employee removed one object from the bag before dumping it.
He placed it inside his truck.
A bronze horse.
The employee later sold it to a pawnshop.
Investigators recovered it.
It had been cleaned.
Very well.
Not perfectly.
Inside a small groove beneath the base was a microscopic blood trace.
DNA testing matched Elena.
May you like
We had the weapon used in the study.
Now the question was who had held it.
