Chapter 8 - THE RECORDING
Margaret wasn't arrested immediately.
Lena questioned everyone separately.
Jessica had recorded part of the fire on her phone.
Melody had seen Margaret holding the lighter.
Tina had photographed the damage.
The venue had hallway cameras.
Margaret couldn't deny what she'd done.
But the bigger problem wasn't the dress.
It was what my phone had captured.
I had forgotten something.
The evidence application Lena installed didn't only upload files.
Once activated, it also preserved the previous thirty minutes of audio from a rolling encrypted buffer.
Margaret's conversation with me had been recorded.
So had everything after the fire.
Richard's confession.
Charles's statements.
Margaret admitting she followed Daniel.
Her admission that she'd called Charles after the crash.
Lena listened without expression.
When the recording ended, she removed one earbud.
“This just became much bigger.”
Jason sat across from her.
“Can you reopen Daniel's case?”
“I don't know.”
“Why not?”
“Because we're talking about an incident twenty-seven years ago.”
She leaned forward.
“Memories aren't enough.”
“What about Charles?”
“He's a witness with his own criminal exposure.”
Jason looked defeated.
Lena continued.
“But financial records don't forget.”
She looked at me.
“And neither do archived phone records.”
Charles had given her something else.
An account ledger.
The payments hadn't simply purchased silence.
Some had gone to a former police officer.
Others to a private investigator.
One payment went to a storage company outside Akron.
Lena circled it.
“Why would Margaret pay for a storage unit for twenty-seven years?”
Nobody knew.
Charles did.
“Daniel's things.”
Jason looked up.
“What things?”
“Everything she removed from his room after he died.”
Richard stared at Margaret.
“You told me you donated them.”
Margaret's face went still.
Charles smiled.
“She lied.”
Jason stood.
“Where's the unit?”
Lena raised a hand.
“You are not going there.”
“Those are my brother's belongings.”
“And potentially evidence.”
She stood.
“We'll get a warrant.”
Jason looked toward Margaret.
His mother had stopped speaking.
That frightened me more than her anger.
Because Margaret was thinking.
Planning.
Calculating.
Then she looked at Charles.
Their eyes met.
And I saw something pass between them.
Recognition.
Fear.
Charles immediately reached for his phone.
Too late.
Margaret ran.
She shoved past a bridesmaid.
Hit the hallway.
And disappeared through a service door.
Lena shouted,
“Stop her!”
But Margaret wasn't running away from the police.
She was running toward something.
Charles looked at Jason.
“The storage unit.”
May you like
Jason's face changed.
“She knows what's inside.”
