Chapter 8 - The Woman in Emma’s Room
Olivia stood frozen.
“That is my mom.”
A woman appeared at the top of the staircase.
Lauren Hart looked thinner than I remembered. Her blonde hair had been cut unevenly, and rain darkened the shoulders of her coat.
She held my father’s cassette tape in one hand.
In the other, she held a pistol.
Olivia rose.
“Mom?”
Lauren’s expression broke for only a second.
“Stay where you are.”
Marlene stepped in front of her granddaughter.
“Lauren, put the gun down.”
“You left me with him.”
Her voice trembled.
“You knew what Dad was doing.”
“We thought you were in treatment.”
“Gerald paid the facility to keep telling you that.”
I moved slightly toward Emma.
Lauren aimed the gun at me.
“Do not.”
Emma remained seated, but her hand found mine beneath the table.
Lauren descended the stairs.
“Dad said the safe contains enough money for Olivia and me to disappear.”
“It contains evidence against him.”
“That is what he told you.”
“Rebecca is alive.”
Lauren stopped.
The name affected her.
“You saw the video?”
“You knew?”
“I helped Patricia find her.”
Marlene stared at her daughter.
“Then why are you helping Gerald?”
“Because he took Olivia from me.”
Olivia began crying.
“I thought you left.”
Lauren’s eyes filled with tears.
“He said I could not see you until I brought him the tape.”
She placed it on the table but kept the gun raised.
“I did not come to hurt anyone.”
“Then help us open the safe,” I said.
“He is watching the house.”
“So are the police.”
“He has officers working for him.”
I thought of Gerald’s dead brother, the former detective.
The corruption had not ended with him.
Lauren looked at Emma.
“I am sorry about your room.”
Emma’s voice remained steady.
“You could have knocked.”
Despite everything, Lauren almost smiled.
Then the basement alarm sounded.
The keypad had activated.
Someone was trying to open the safe.
Officer Ortiz rushed in from the porch with two officers.
Lauren immediately lowered her weapon.
“I am not the threat.”
We ran downstairs.
The storage cabinet had been moved.
The steel safe displayed a blinking message.
Voice recognized.
Gerald’s recorded command played through the speaker using my father’s voice.
The lock released.
The door opened three inches.
Officer Ortiz pulled it wider.
Inside were several ledgers, old photographs, legal files, and a small digital recorder.
There was no money.
Emma pointed toward a gap on the lowest shelf.
“Something was there.”
Dust outlined the shape of a rectangular case.
Lauren turned toward the rear wall.
A hidden basement window stood open.
Someone had entered, taken the case, and escaped while we were upstairs.
The digital recorder activated automatically.
My father’s voice filled the basement.
“Rachel, if Gerald opened this safe, then I failed to protect you.”
I covered my mouth.
“There is one item he fears more than the ledger. A red file containing the names of every official who helped him. I gave that file to the only person he would never suspect.”
The recording paused.
Then my father spoke one final sentence.
May you like
“I gave it to Daniel.”
Continue to the next part: Daniel may have possessed the evidence all along, but Rachel no longer knows whether he hid it to protect her or to protect Gerald.
