Chapter 6 - THE MISSING FILE
The police sealed the house.
Every room was photographed.
Every drawer was opened.
Every computer was collected.
The intruder hadn't stolen jewelry.
Hadn't taken electronics.
Hadn't touched cash.
They had gone directly to the filing cabinet where Marcus stored our medical paperwork.
Only one folder was missing.
The original accident file.
Detective Alvarez stared at the empty drawer.
“Why would someone want this?”
Dad answered.
“Because it contains the original photographs.”
I looked at him.
“What photographs?”
“The car.”
I frowned.
“What about it?”
Dad pulled out his phone.
He had photographed the vehicle before it was taken to the repair shop.
“Look at the damage.”
I studied the picture.
The driver's side was badly damaged.
The passenger side was almost untouched.
I stared.
“I was driving?”
Dad shook his head.
“Marcus was.”
Then he showed me another picture.
The steering wheel.
A deep impact mark.
But it wasn't where Marcus's body would have struck.
Detective Alvarez looked closely.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
He zoomed in.
There was a second set of fingerprints on the inside of the windshield.
Not mine.
Not Marcus's.
“Who was in the car?”
I whispered:
“I don't know.”
Then I remembered.
A voice.
A woman's voice.
Just before the crash.
I had forgotten it because of the concussion.
But now it came back.
Someone had been arguing with Marcus.
A woman.
I couldn't remember her face.
Only her words.
“You promised me she wouldn't be there.”
I looked at Detective Alvarez.
“There was someone else.”
He immediately called the department.
They pulled traffic-camera footage from the night of the crash.
Hours later, they found something.
A dark SUV had been following Marcus's car.
The same SUV appeared near our house repeatedly over the previous month.
Rebecca identified it.
“It belongs to the woman from the clinic.”
The office manager.
Detective Alvarez obtained a warrant.
Her name was Jennifer Cole.
When police searched her apartment, they found copies of my medical records.
They also found a notebook.
Inside were dates.
Appointments.
Bank transfers.
Medication changes.
And one sentence written on the final page.
When Emma is declared incompetent, Marcus signs.
Beneath it was a date.
A date three days from now.
“What happens then?” I asked.
Detective Alvarez looked at me.
“According to the paperwork, that's when the guardianship hearing was scheduled.”
I stared at him.
“I don't have a hearing.”
“You do now.”
“How?”
Marcus had filed it without telling me.
He claimed I was mentally incapable of managing myself.
And the court had already scheduled an emergency hearing.
Three days.
That was all we had.
Dad looked at me.
“What do we do?”
I looked at the folder.
At the photographs.
At the recordings.
At the forged signature.
At the chain.
Then I said:
“We let him think he's winning.”
Claire stared at me.
“Emma?”
I looked at her.
“For three months, Marcus controlled the story.”
I closed the folder.
May you like
“Now we're going to control the evidence.”
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