Chapter 2 - Seventeen FilesThe police sealed the apartment before midnight.
By 1:15 a.m., Elena and Ava were sitting in the lobby of a nearby hotel while officers examined every room.
Ava couldn't stop thinking about the black box.
Seventeen files.
Seventeen.
She had known about three.
She had hidden those three.
She hadn't known about the others.
The detective had called it a "storage device."
Ava called it something else.
Proof.
Her mother sat beside her, staring at the carpet.
She hadn't cried since they left the apartment.
That frightened Ava more than tears would have.
"Mom?"
Elena looked up.
"I'm here."
"Are you angry at me?"
Elena's face broke.
"No."
"I should've told you."
"You were fourteen."
"I was supposed to tell you."
"You were a child."
Ava's eyes filled.
"I thought you'd believe him."
Elena looked down.
After a long silence, she said:
"I believed him too easily."
That sentence hurt more than anything.
Before Ava could answer, Detective Hale entered the lobby.
He looked tired.
But alert.
He sat across from them.
"We have a problem."
Elena immediately stood.
"What?"
"The files are encrypted."
Ava's stomach tightened.
"So you can't open them?"
"Not yet."
"Can you?"
"We'll need a specialist."
Elena stared at him.
"How long?"
"Hours. Maybe longer."
Ava stared at the floor.
"Can I see them?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because they're evidence now."
Ava nodded.
Then the detective added:
"But there is something you should know."
He placed a folder on the table.
"The storage device wasn't just recording audio."
Elena opened the folder.
Photographs.
Dates.
Names.
Times.
Locations.
Ava didn't understand.
"What's all this?"
Hale answered quietly.
"Schedules."
Elena looked up.
"Whose?"
"Yours."
Silence.
Ava felt cold.
"My schedule?"
"Your mother's schedule."
Hale flipped through several pages.
"When she worked."
"When she came home."
"When you were alone."
Ava's face drained of color.
"He was tracking her?"
"It appears so."
Elena slowly sat back down.
"Why?"
Hale didn't answer immediately.
"That's the question we're trying to answer."
He closed the folder.
"There is more."
Ava whispered:
"What?"
"The oldest recording is not from inside your apartment."
Her heart stopped.
"Then where?"
"The audio file contains another woman's voice."
Elena stared at him.
"What woman?"
Hale looked at Ava.
"Someone named Rebecca Lane."
Ava frowned.
"I don't know her."
"Apparently, your father did."
Elena's eyes narrowed.
"Who is Rebecca Lane?"
"We don't know yet."
Ava suddenly remembered something.
A name.
A fragment.
Something her father had once said when she was younger.
She had heard him on the phone.
He had sounded angry.
She remembered one sentence.
"Rebecca knows what happens if she talks."
Ava whispered:
"I know that name."
Hale leaned forward.
"What did you hear?"
"Years ago. Dad was on the phone."
"What did he say?"
"He said..."
Ava closed her eyes.
She tried to remember.
Then she looked up.
"He said she was already too late."
Hale's expression changed.
"Too late for what?"
Ava shook her head.
"I don't know."
Elena stood suddenly.
"Find her."
Hale gave her a long look.
"That's exactly what we're going to do."
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed while he listened.
"Repeat that."
Pause.
"No. Do not touch anything."
He hung up.
Elena stared at him.
"What happened?"
Hale looked at Ava.
"The forensic team found a second compartment in the wall."
Ava's pulse raced.
"Another box?"
"No."
His voice lowered.
"A photograph."
"What kind?"
Hale took a printout from his folder.
He placed it on the table.
Ava looked down.
It was a photograph of her.
Fourteen years old.
Standing outside the school gate.
Taken from across the street.
May you like
And written on the back were four words:
She hasn't told anyone. Yet.
