Chapter 5 - Phase TwoNobody spoke for several seconds.
Detective Hale slowly walked to the laptop.
"Don't touch it."
He examined the screen.
"It auto-launched."
Rebecca stood in the doorway.
"I told you."
Ava looked at her.
"You knew this would happen?"
"I knew there was a possibility."
"That's not what you said."
Rebecca's face tightened.
"I was afraid."
"So was I."
The words came out sharper than Ava intended.
Rebecca nodded.
"I know."
Hale examined the room.
"Nobody moves."
He called the forensic team.
Ten minutes later, the apartment filled with technicians.
The laptop contained twenty-seven files.
All encrypted.
But one folder wasn't.
It was labeled:
ELENA
Ava's mother went pale.
"Why is my name on there?"
Hale opened the file.
It contained photographs.
Elena at work.
Elena at the grocery store.
Elena driving.
Elena sitting alone outside the apartment.
Hundreds of photographs.
Ava stared at them.
"He's been watching Mom."
Rebecca whispered:
"Not just watching."
She pointed toward the last image.
Ava looked.
The photograph showed Elena entering a building.
The date was three weeks earlier.
Ava recognized the building.
It was the courthouse.
Her mother's old divorce attorney had an office there.
Elena shook her head.
"I haven't been there."
Hale zoomed in.
The image had been manipulated.
The timestamp was real.
The photograph wasn't.
He turned to Rebecca.
"Who has access to this kind of surveillance?"
Rebecca didn't answer.
"Rebecca."
She finally spoke.
"Daniel wasn't working alone."
Ava's stomach dropped.
"Who else?"
Rebecca looked at Elena.
"People with money."
"How many?"
"Enough."
Hale's jaw tightened.
"Names."
"I have some."
She reached into her bag.
Another envelope.
Inside were seven names.
Lawyers.
Private investigators.
A former police officer.
A judge's assistant.
And one name Ava recognized.
Her father's attorney.
Martin Shaw.
Elena stared at it.
"Martin?"
Rebecca nodded.
"He helped Daniel prepare for this."
Hale took the paper.
"That doesn't prove criminal involvement."
"No," Rebecca said.
"But it proves preparation."
The detective looked at Ava.
"Do you know what Phase Two means?"
Ava shook her head.
Rebecca answered for her.
"Destroy credibility."
"Explain."
"Daniel's first strategy was silence."
She pointed at Ava.
"When silence failed, Phase Two would make everyone question her."
Elena felt sick.
"And Phase Three?"
Rebecca looked away.
"I don't know."
Ava suddenly noticed something on the floor.
A small red mark.
Paint.
She crouched.
It formed a line toward the bedroom.
She followed it.
Behind a loose baseboard was another memory card.
Hale stopped her.
He retrieved it.
This one opened without a password.
A video.
Daniel sitting at a desk.
He was speaking to someone off-camera.
The recording appeared to have been made months earlier.
Daniel said:
"If she talks, Elena breaks first."
A male voice answered:
"And if Elena doesn't?"
Daniel smiled.
"Then we use the daughter."
The video ended.
Ava felt the room spin.
"They knew about me."
Hale stared at the screen.
"Long before tonight."
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
"What?"
Pause.
"You're certain?"
Another pause.
He looked directly at Ava.
"We need to leave."
"Why?"
"The hotel where you were staying has been entered."
Elena grabbed Ava's hand.
"What do you mean entered?"
Hale's voice dropped.
"Someone broke into your room."
Rebecca whispered:
"Did they take anything?"
Hale looked at Ava.
"Only one thing."
"What?"
"Her suitcase."
Ava's face went cold.
Her suitcase contained clothes.
Documents.
Her old school notebooks.
And one other thing.
A journal she'd kept hidden for five years.
Her most private memories.
Everything she had never said aloud.
She looked at her mother.
"They took my journal."
Hale nodded.
Then his phone buzzed again.
A text.
One photograph.
Ava's suitcase sitting on a table.
May you like
And beneath it, a message:
THE TRUTH CAN BE EDITED.
