Chapter 7
Detective Hannah Reed took the USB seriously.
That saved me.
I had expected doubt.
A polite nod.
A tired face.
Instead, she watched Elena’s videos with her jaw tight and eyes sharp.
When the brake line clip ended, she said, “We need the original crash file.”
I stared at her.
“It was two years ago.”
“Murder doesn’t expire that fast.”
The word hit me hard.
Murder.
I had thought it before.
Hearing it from a detective made the room tilt.
Rosie sat outside with Laura, coloring.
She did not know we were talking about her mother’s death.
Not yet.
Bethany hired a lawyer by noon.
My father hired two.
My mother called me from a number I had not blocked yet.
“Your father says you’re making old grief ugly.”
“Old grief was already ugly.”
“Please stop.”
“Did you know about the custody papers?”
Silence.
“Mom.”
“I thought they were only trying to scare Elena.”
I closed my eyes.
“She was pregnant with Rosie.”
“I know.”
“And you let them scare her?”
Mom sobbed.
“Your father said Elena was taking you from us.”
I laughed bitterly.
“No. You were pushing me away all by yourselves.”
The crash file came back the next day.
Brake failure.
No deeper investigation.
Why?
Because my father had identified the body, paid for the funeral, and insisted the family did not want “media attention.”
I never knew that.
I had been sedated from shock after seeing the wreck.
My father handled everything.
Detective Reed reopened the case.
The mechanic who towed Elena’s car was found in Arizona.
He remembered the vehicle.
He remembered my father.
“He paid me cash to crush it fast,” the mechanic said on a recorded call.
That night, someone threw a brick through my living room window.
May you like
Attached was a note.
Stop digging, or Rosie loses both parents.
