Chapter 2 - WHAT EMMA HEARD
Officer Ryan Keller arrived first.
Detective Lena Ortiz arrived twenty minutes later.
By then Diane had changed strategies three times.
First, she claimed Laura had given her the phone shortly before the accident.
Then she claimed she had forgotten she had it.
Finally, she said she had recently discovered it inside one of my father’s old boxes.
Ortiz listened without interrupting.
That worried Diane.
Detective Ortiz was in her early forties, calm, observant, and almost unnervingly quiet.
When Diane finished, Ortiz asked one question.
“Why was your granddaughter afraid of you?”
Diane blinked.
“I already explained.”
“No. You explained why you touched her. I asked why she was afraid.”
“She’s a sensitive child.”
Ortiz looked at Emma.
Emma was sitting beside me on the couch now, wrapped in a blanket.
“She’s six.”
Diane said nothing.
Ortiz turned toward me.
“We’re going to separate everyone for statements.”
My mother stood immediately.
“I want an attorney.”
Ortiz nodded.
“That’s your right.”
The moment Diane left the room with Officer Keller, Emma grabbed my sleeve.
“Daddy.”
“I’m here.”
“There’s more.”
Ortiz crouched several feet away.
“You can tell your dad.”
Emma looked toward the hallway.
“Grandma said Mommy found something.”
My breath caught.
“What?”
“She said Mommy should’ve stayed out of grown-up business.”
Ortiz glanced at me.
“Did your wife have any connection to the Mercer family company?”
“Not officially.”
Mercer Development had belonged to my father.
After he died, control had passed to me, Diane, and Grant through a complicated trust arrangement.
Laura had hated the company.
Or at least I thought she had.
“She was an accountant before Emma was born,” I said.
Ortiz’s eyes sharpened.
“For Mercer Development?”
“No. A healthcare firm.”
Emma tugged my sleeve again.
“Grandma said Mommy copied numbers.”
I looked at her.
“What numbers?”
“I don’t know.”
“And Uncle Grant?”
“He said it didn’t matter because the lake house was empty.”
My pulse jumped.
The lake house.
My father’s old place at Blackwater Lake.
It had been abandoned since his death.
I hadn’t been there in four years.
Ortiz wrote something down.
“Daniel, did your wife ever go there?”
“Laura?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know.”
But even as I said it, a memory returned.
Laura standing in our kitchen three weeks before she died.
Mud on her shoes.
Her hair damp from rain.
I had asked where she had been.
She told me she drove around to clear her head.
At the time, we had been arguing.
About my mother.
About Grant.
About how much control my family still had over our lives.
I never asked where she had actually gone.
Now I knew.
Blackwater Lake.
Ortiz stood.
“Don’t go there.”
I looked at her.
“I know what you’re thinking.”
“You don’t.”
“I do. And if that location matters, I want a warrant and a proper search.”
“That could take hours.”
“Then it takes hours.”
Before I could answer, Keller returned.
His expression had changed.
“Detective.”
Ortiz joined him near the door.
They spoke quietly.
Then she looked at me.
“Your mother’s attorney is coming.”
“That was fast.”
“She already had his number ready.”
“Who?”
Ortiz hesitated.
“Thomas Voss.”
My stomach dropped.
Thomas Voss wasn’t merely an attorney.
He had been my father’s lawyer for twenty-seven years.
He handled the family trust.
My inheritance.
Grant’s shares.
Diane’s estate.
And Laura’s probate after her death.
I stared toward the hallway.
“Thomas handled Laura’s estate.”
Ortiz stopped writing.
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“Then I strongly suggest you stop discussing this investigation with anyone connected to him.”
Twenty minutes later, Thomas walked through my front door.
Gray suit.
Silver hair.
Perfectly calm.
He barely looked at me.
But when he saw Laura’s phone sealed inside an evidence bag—
his steps faltered.
Only once.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
Ortiz saw it too.
Thomas recovered quickly.
“Mrs. Mercer will be leaving with me.”
Ortiz folded her arms.
“We’re still taking her statement.”
“She has nothing further to say.”
Thomas turned toward me.
“Daniel.”
There was almost pity in his voice.
“You should think carefully before reopening wounds your daughter has finally begun to survive.”
I stared at him.
“You knew about the phone.”
His face revealed nothing.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You looked at it.”
“So?”
“You recognized it.”
Thomas leaned closer.
“Grief has a way of convincing people that coincidence is conspiracy.”
Then he lowered his voice.
“Don’t let it destroy what remains of your family.”
He left with Diane.
I stood in the doorway watching them.
Ortiz came beside me.
“You trust him?”
“I did yesterday.”
“And today?”
I watched Thomas open the passenger door for my mother.
“No.”
Ortiz nodded.
“Good.”
Her phone buzzed.
She checked the screen.
Then looked at me.
“The forensic unit thinks they can recover data from Laura’s phone.”
My throat tightened.
“How long?”
“They’ll know more soon.”
I looked down at Emma.
She was staring at the empty doorway where Diane had disappeared.
Then she whispered something that changed the shape of the entire night.
“Daddy?”
May you like
“Yes?”
“Grandma said if you ever heard Mommy’s recording, you’d never forgive her.”
