Chapter 13 â The Leak
The room fell into stunned silence.
Emily looked from Detective Mitchell to her father, then to Rachel.
No one spoke.
No one wanted to.
Because if Mitchell was right...
Trevor wasn't simply an abusive husband anymore.
He had people inside the system protecting him.
Frank was the first to break the silence.
"You're telling me someone in law enforcement tipped him off?"
Mitchell shook her head.
"Not law enforcement."
"The District Attorney's Office."
She pointed to the list of people who knew about Rachel's storage unit.
"Myself."
"Rachel."
"Emily."
"Frank."
"And Assistant District Attorney Daniel Pierce."
Emily frowned.
"Who is he?"
"The prosecutor originally assigned to review Trevor's case."
Mitchell sighed.
"I told him about the storage unit yesterday morning."
"And Trevor appeared there less than three hours later."
Rachel whispered,
"That's not a coincidence."
"No."
Mitchell answered quietly.
"It isn't."
Frank slammed his fist onto the desk.
"So arrest Pierce."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Suspicion isn't evidence."
Mitchell rubbed her temples.
"If I accuse a prosecutor without proof, the entire case could collapse."
Emily stared at the photograph of Trevor standing outside the storage unit.
"He knew exactly where we'd be."
Mitchell nodded.
"He wasn't guessing."
"He was waiting."
Just then, Mitchell's office phone rang.
She answered.
"Mitchell."
Her expression changed almost immediately.
"What?"
She stood.
"When?"
Emily's pulse quickened.
Mitchell listened for another thirty seconds.
Then hung up.
"What happened?" Frank asked.
"The forensic team finished examining Rachel's VHS camera."
Emily leaned forward.
"And?"
"They recovered deleted files."
Rachel frowned.
"Deleted?"
"I didn't delete anything."
Mitchell looked at her.
"You didn't."
"Someone else did."
An hour later...
The four of them stood inside the Digital Forensics Laboratory.
Computer monitors lined the walls.
Hard drives.
Evidence bags.
Rows of blinking servers.
A technician named Kevin greeted them.
"We recovered ninety-three percent of the deleted memory."
Emily looked hopeful.
"Did you find anything?"
Kevin nodded.
"More than we expected."
He inserted the memory card into a workstation.
A folder appeared.
Recovered Files.
Inside were dozens of videos.
Rachel covered her mouth.
"I thought there were only three."
"There were twenty-eight."
Emily stared.
"Twenty-eight?"
Kevin nodded.
"Twenty-five were intentionally erased."
Mitchell asked,
"Can we recover all of them?"
"Most."
Kevin clicked the oldest recording.
The video opened.
The date read:
August 14 â Nine Years Earlier.
Rachel appeared on screen.
She was laughing.
Trevor was beside her.
Smiling.
Holding a birthday cake.
For nearly two minutes...
They looked like the happiest couple in the world.
Emily frowned.
"Why would he erase this?"
Kevin skipped forward.
Everything changed.
Trevor accidentally left the camera recording after setting it on a bookshelf.
The laughter stopped.
Rachel answered a phone call.
"Hi, Olivia."
Emily looked toward Mitchell.
Olivia.
The woman who later died.
The video continued.
Rachel smiled.
"Tomorrow?"
"Sure."
Trevor's expression changed instantly.
The smile vanished.
He snatched the phone from Rachel's hand.
"Who was that?"
"Olivia."
"Why is she calling you?"
"She's my friend."
Trevor ended the call.
Without warningâ
He threw Rachel's phone against the wall.
The screen exploded.
Emily flinched.
The technician quietly paused the video.
"No wonder he deleted these."
Mitchell looked thoughtful.
"Play the next one."
Kevin nodded.
Another video.
Another argument.
Another assault.
Then another.
Each recording showed the same terrifying pattern.
Charm.
Control.
Violence.
Apology.
Flowers.
Promises.
Then...
Violence again.
Rachel quietly whispered,
"It never ended."
Emily reached for her hand.
"No."
"It didn't."
Halfway through the recovered files...
Kevin suddenly froze.
"What?"
Mitchell asked.
He leaned closer to the screen.
"This file..."
"It isn't from Rachel's apartment."
Emily frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Kevin enlarged the image.
A luxurious office.
Mahogany furniture.
Large windows overlooking downtown.
Mitchell recognized it immediately.
"That's Bennett Holdings."
Rachel looked confused.
"Trevor's office?"
Kevin shook his head.
"No."
He zoomed in on a framed certificate hanging behind the desk.
Margaret Bennett
Chief Executive Officer
Emily's heartbeat quickened.
"It's his mother's office."
Kevin pressed play.
The timestamp read:
Six Years Earlier.
Margaret Bennett sat behind her desk.
Trevor paced nervously.
The camera angle suggested it had been hidden inside a bookshelf.
Emily listened carefully.
Trevor's voice was clear.
"Rachel is becoming a problem."
Margaret never looked surprised.
"Then solve it."
"I've tried."
"She's documenting everything."
Margaret calmly signed a document.
"People don't believe frightened women."
Trevor stopped pacing.
"What if she goes to the police?"
Margaret looked up.
"Then we'll make sure the police believe someone else."
Emily felt sick.
The room fell completely silent.
Margaret continued speaking.
"Control the narrative."
"Always."
Trevor nodded.
"What about Olivia?"
Emily's heart stopped.
Margaret answered without emotion.
"One problem at a time."
The video ended.
No one moved.
Frank finally spoke.
"My God..."
Rachel began crying.
Emily couldn't breathe.
It wasn't just Trevor.
His mother had known.
Perhaps from the beginning.
Mitchell turned toward Kevin.
"Copy this immediately."
Kevin nodded.
"Already done."
He held up three encrypted evidence drives.
"I made multiple backups."
Mitchell smiled faintly.
"Good."
Emily looked at the monitor again.
The final recovered file remained unopened.
Its title caught everyone's attention.
DO NOT DELETE
Rachel frowned.
"I've never seen that."
Kevin clicked it.
The video lasted only twenty-three seconds.
The camera pointed toward a conference room.
The image was blurry.
Voices echoed from inside.
Margaret Bennett spoke first.
"The insurance company has agreed."
Another unfamiliar male voice answered.
"The accident report is ready."
Then Trevor asked quietly,
"What if they find the brake line?"
The man laughed.
"They won't."
Emily felt every hair on her arms stand up.
The video abruptly ended.
No faces.
Only voices.
Mitchell stared at the screen.
Her expression hardened.
"Olivia's car."
Frank whispered,
"They sabotaged it."
Mitchell nodded slowly.
"It certainly sounds that way."
Before anyone could say another wordâ
Kevin's computer suddenly went black.
Every monitor in the lab shut down.
The overhead lights flickered.
Then emergency power activated.
A loud alarm began echoing through the building.
Kevin looked horrified.
"I didn't do that."
Mitchell stepped toward the server rack.
"What happened?"
Kevin rapidly typed commands into another terminal.
His face turned pale.
"Oh no..."
Emily's stomach tightened.
"What?"
Kevin looked at them in disbelief.
"Someone is remotely accessing our evidence server."
Mitchell's voice became sharp.
"Can you stop them?"
Kevin's fingers flew across the keyboard.
"I'm trying..."
"But whoever this is..."
He swallowed hard.
"...they already have administrator privileges."
On the largest monitor, a single line of text slowly appeared in bright red letters:
May you like
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE PAST BURIED.
The alarm continued screaming through the laboratory as every evidence file on the screen began disappearing.
