Chapter 5 - HER MOTHER’S VOICE
The sheriff arrived before midnight.
This time there were six deputies.
Too many witnesses had called.
Too many videos were already online.
Emmett could no longer close the gates.
Rosalie refused medical treatment from Voss.
A county paramedic cleaned the wound on her back and documented the scars.
Dr. Voss left Pinecrest under questioning.
Emmett was not arrested.
Not yet.
There was no proof of a current crime strong enough to hold him.
Only accusations.
Old scars.
And a dead woman’s letter.
At 12:31 a.m., Manuel, Rosalie, Maya, Catherine, and two sheriff’s deputies entered Hawthorne Trust.
Emmett arrived with three attorneys.
Rosalie did not look at him.
Box 317 was brought into a private viewing room.
The brass key turned.
Rosalie lifted the lid.
Inside were three objects.
A cassette tape.
A photograph.
And a locker receipt.
Nothing else.
Maya picked up the photograph.
It showed Lorelei standing beside a row of lockers.
On the back was written:
CENTRAL STATION.
LOCKER 814.
Rosalie picked up the cassette.
A label was written in her mother’s handwriting.
FOR ROSALIE.
The trust manager found an old cassette player.
Rosalie pressed PLAY.
Static filled the room.
Then came Lorelei’s voice.
Rosalie covered her mouth.
“My darling girl.”
Her knees weakened.
Manuel moved beside her.
“If you hear this, I failed to take you away.”
Rosalie began crying.
“But you must understand something.”
“You were never the problem.”
“You were never difficult.”
“You were never sick.”
“Your father needed people to believe you were.”
Emmett’s attorney stood.
“We object to—”
The sheriff silenced him.
The recording continued.
Lorelei described accounts.
Shell companies.
Bribes.
Construction contracts.
But then her voice changed.
“This is not why I am afraid.”
Rosalie gripped Manuel’s hand.
“Emmett knows I discovered what happened to Daniel Mercer.”
Catherine gasped.
Manuel looked at Maya.
“Who’s Daniel Mercer?”
Maya was already searching.
Her face changed.
“Former Durham Development accountant.”
“Missing twenty-one years.”
Lorelei continued.
“Daniel found the original ledgers.”
“He threatened to expose Emmett.”
“Three days later, Daniel disappeared.”
Rosalie looked at her father through the glass wall.
Emmett had stopped smiling.
Lorelei’s voice became softer.
“I hid copies.”
“Locker 814.”
“If Emmett has not found them, they will prove everything.”
The tape clicked.
Everyone remained silent.
Then another sound appeared.
A man’s voice.
Faint.
Angry.
Lorelei had accidentally recorded something after she thought the tape had stopped.
“Where is Rosalie?”
Emmett.
Lorelei answered.
“You will never touch her again.”
A crash followed.
Then Lorelei screamed.
Rosalie tore her hand away from the player.
Manuel stopped the tape.
She stared through the glass.
At her father.
Emmett stared back.
May you like
And for the first time in Rosalie’s life, she saw something in his face she had never seen before.
Fear.
