Chapter 5 - JASON DISAPPEARS
Police reached Jason’s apartment twelve minutes later.
He was gone.
His front door was open.
A lamp had been knocked over.
His phone lay shattered beside the couch.
No blood.
No body.
No Jason.
Taylor stood in our kitchen staring at Detective Park.
“Someone took my brother?”
“We don’t know that.”
“He said they were there.”
“We’re treating him as missing until we know more.”
I looked toward the hallway.
Lily was staying overnight at the hospital.
I wanted to be there.
Instead, I was standing inside a house that suddenly felt like a crime scene.
An officer entered carrying a laptop.
“We recovered this from Jason’s apartment.”
Park opened it.
Password protected.
Taylor tried his birthday.
Wrong.
His dog’s name.
Wrong.
Then she whispered, “Try 0719.”
The computer unlocked.
I looked at her.
“What’s July nineteenth?”
“The day our father died.”
The desktop appeared.
One folder sat in the center.
Its name was LILY.
Park opened it.
Photographs filled the screen.
Pictures of Lily at school.
At the playground.
At our house.
Some had been taken from across the street.
I felt rage rising in my chest.
“What the hell?”
Taylor covered her mouth.
Then we found spreadsheets.
Dates.
Times.
My work schedule.
Taylor’s schedule.
When Lily was alone with Evelyn.
Someone had been tracking our family.
Park opened another document.
A financial statement.
My eyes landed on a number.
$4,800,000.
Taylor whispered, “What is that?”
“Lily’s trust.”
The current value.
Then another line appeared.
CONTINGENCY BENEFICIARY UPON CHANGE OF GUARDIANSHIP.
I leaned closer.
“What does that mean?”
Park shook her head.
“We need an attorney to interpret it.”
Taylor suddenly pointed at the screen.
“Wait.”
A company name appeared beside the beneficiary information.
Marshall Family Holdings.
Evelyn’s company.
Taylor stepped backward.
“No.”
Her mother hadn’t simply wanted custody.
If Evelyn became Lily’s legal guardian under specific emergency provisions, she could petition for control over distributions.
Millions of dollars.
Park opened another file.
An email.
From Jason to Evelyn.
MOM, WE NEED TO STOP. LILY IS GETTING SCARED.
Evelyn’s reply was short.
FEAR MAKES CHILDREN OBEDIENT.
Taylor began crying.
Then another email appeared.
Jason had written:
I NEVER AGREED TO HURT HER.
Evelyn replied:
YOU AGREED WHEN YOU TOOK THE MONEY.
“What money?” I asked.
Park searched the financial files.
A transfer.
$75,000.
Sent to Jason three months earlier.
From an account belonging to Marshall Family Holdings.
Taylor whispered, “She paid him.”
But then Park opened one final email.
It had been sent by someone using an encrypted address.
To Evelyn.
The message read:
THE FREEZER INCIDENT MUST LOOK ACCIDENTAL.
My blood went cold.
Below that:
ONCE MARK IS CHARGED WITH NEGLIGENCE, FILE THE GUARDIANSHIP PETITION.
Taylor stared at the screen.
“My mother didn’t write the plan.”
“No,” Park said.
“Then who did?”
Park scrolled down.
There was no name.
Only initials.
R.C.
I knew those initials.
And when I said the name aloud, Taylor looked like I had slapped her.
“Richard Cole.”
May you like
Her father’s former attorney.
The same man who had prepared Lily’s trust.
