Mark stood handcuffed beside the patio table while I read Emily\u2019s letter again.<\/p>\n
He watched me fold it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou believe everything she writes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just implied you know why she disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI said what would frighten you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. You said what frightened you.\u201d<\/p>\n
An officer started walking him toward the driveway.<\/p>\n
Mark twisted around.<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah, don\u2019t go to that storage unit.\u201d<\/p>\n
That stopped me.<\/p>\n
He saw it.<\/p>\n
A faint smile returned.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily wanted you curious. That was the whole point.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout your first wife?\u201d<\/p>\n
His expression closed.<\/p>\n
Then he raised his voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily became obsessed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noah flinched.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t talk about his mother like that,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have no idea what she became.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark hesitated.<\/p>\n
Then said, \u201cMy first wife is alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The yard went still.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s her name?\u201d<\/p>\n
He refused to answer.<\/p>\n
Again I asked.<\/p>\n
The officer beside him reminded him that he did not have to respond.<\/p>\n
Mark looked almost grateful.<\/p>\n
Then Noah whispered, \u201cRebecca.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark spun toward him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNoah.\u201d<\/p>\n
The warning in that one word made the boy shrink against me.<\/p>\n
I moved between them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know Rebecca\u2019s name?\u201d<\/p>\n
Noah stared at the grass.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom said it when they fought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark was taken toward the patrol car.<\/p>\n
I watched until he disappeared around the house.<\/p>\n
Then Officer Ramirez remained behind to take our statements.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen did you last speak directly to your sister?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSix days ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did she say?\u201d<\/p>\n
I searched my memory.<\/p>\n
Emily had sounded ordinary. Too ordinary, I realized now.<\/p>\n
She had asked whether Noah could stay longer.<\/p>\n
Then she had asked whether I still kept our father\u2019s old fireproof lockbox in my basement.<\/p>\n
At the time I had thought nothing of it.<\/p>\n
Now Ramirez asked, \u201cDid she explain why?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noah tugged my shirt.<\/p>\n
\u201cAunt Sarah?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom came here.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore Dad brought me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mean she visited?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt night.\u201d<\/p>\n
My pulse jumped.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas I home?\u201d<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were asleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did she do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe went downstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramirez and I looked at each other.<\/p>\n
The basement.<\/p>\n
The lockbox.<\/p>\n
Two officers cleared the house before we entered.<\/p>\n
Dinner still sat on the table. The milk had warmed. Drawers remained open from Mark\u2019s search. One chair lay on its side.<\/p>\n
Noah would not go upstairs.<\/p>\n
The boys stayed with an officer while Ramirez followed me into the basement.<\/p>\n
Dad\u2019s lockbox sat beneath the narrow window.<\/p>\n
I unlocked it.<\/p>\n
Military records.<\/p>\n
Birth certificates.<\/p>\n
Property papers.<\/p>\n
Old photographs.<\/p>\n
Then something new.<\/p>\n
A red folder.<\/p>\n
Emily had written instructions across it for me to open it only if she was gone.<\/p>\n
I looked at Ramirez.<\/p>\n
Whatever my sister had uncovered no longer belonged solely to us.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake it as evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramirez put on gloves.<\/p>\n
Inside were copied bank records, property documents, an old newspaper clipping, and a photograph.<\/p>\n
The picture showed a much younger Mark beside a red-haired woman.<\/p>\n
On the back:<\/p>\n
MARK + REBECCA.<\/p>\n
JUNE 2009.<\/p>\n
Beneath it lay a missing-person notice.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Anne Collins.<\/p>\n
Twenty-six years old.<\/p>\n
Missing since August 14, 2010.<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said she was alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramirez studied the document.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis says she was reported missing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The accompanying article said Rebecca\u2019s vehicle had been discovered near a hiking trail. Her purse remained inside. Her phone vanished with her.<\/p>\n
No arrest.<\/p>\n
No resolution.<\/p>\n
Then we found the marriage certificate.<\/p>\n
The groom\u2019s name was Mark David Holland.<\/p>\n
I read it twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not his name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat name do you know him by?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMark Foster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramirez photographed the document.<\/p>\n
\u201cA name change by itself doesn\u2019t prove wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the folder contained more.<\/p>\n
Emily had circled transfers from Rebecca\u2019s financial accounts after her disappearance.<\/p>\n
Forty-eight thousand dollars.<\/p>\n
Sixty-two thousand.<\/p>\n
One hundred twenty-five thousand.<\/p>\n
The money moved through multiple accounts before some of it appeared under a company called Horizon Ridge Consulting.<\/p>\n
The listed owner was Mark Holland.<\/p>\n
I sat on the edge of Dad\u2019s workbench.<\/p>\n
Emily had not been collecting rumors.<\/p>\n
She had been building a trail.<\/p>\n
At the back of the folder was another handwritten instruction.<\/p>\n
Unit 314 contained a laptop.<\/p>\n
The password was based on Noah\u2019s first word.<\/p>\n
Emily warned against connecting the machine to her home internet.<\/p>\n
Then came the line that made Ramirez stop.<\/p>\n
Rebecca had left evidence too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
My phone rang.<\/p>\n
Unknown number.<\/p>\n
It stopped.<\/p>\n
Then rang again.<\/p>\n
Ramirez nodded for me to answer on speaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello?\u201d<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
Then breathing.<\/p>\n
A woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily?\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily, is that you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah?\u201d<\/p>\n
My legs weakened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
She was crying.<\/p>\n
Her first question was about Noah.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily released a broken breath.<\/p>\n
I told her Mark was with police.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou found the envelope?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd opened it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen listen carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not go to Unit 314 alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot assume every police officer is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramirez\u2019s eyes sharpened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone helped Mark after Rebecca disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know for certain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily, where are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
A door opened somewhere on her end.<\/p>\n
Emily stopped breathing.<\/p>\n
Footsteps followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh God.\u201d<\/p>\n
A male voice sounded faintly in the distance.<\/p>\n
Emily whispered urgently.<\/p>\n
\u201cFind the laptop. Find Rebecca\u2019s video.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTell Noah I love him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The call ended.<\/p>\n
I immediately called back.<\/p>\n
Unavailable.<\/p>\n
Again.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
Ramirez contacted dispatch and requested a trace.<\/p>\n
My sister had been alive seconds earlier.<\/p>\n
Somebody had entered wherever she was.<\/p>\n
And she believed Mark had received help from someone connected to law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Ramirez told me detectives would secure the storage unit.<\/p>\n
Then another officer hurried downstairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to come up.\u201d<\/p>\n
We followed him.<\/p>\n
Noah and Tyler stood at the front window.<\/p>\n
Across the street, Robert Foster was talking to an officer.<\/p>\n
He glanced toward my house.<\/p>\n
Then directly at me.<\/p>\n
He smiled.<\/p>\n
Noah seized my hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe man Dad talked to.\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned toward him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you saying?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day before Dad brought me here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noah pointed through the glass.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard Dad say Rebecca.\u201d<\/p>\n
My pulse thudded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Robert say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Noah swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told Dad not to worry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe old file.\u201d<\/p>\n
I crouched.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat old file?\u201d<\/p>\n
Noah\u2019s voice shook.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he got rid of it a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n
Noah looked at Robert across the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cFourteen years.\u201d<\/p>\n
I straightened slowly.<\/p>\n
Rebecca had vanished fourteen years earlier.<\/p>\n
And the retired officer I had trusted to watch my neighborhood had apparently discussed destroying a file connected to her disappearance.<\/p>\n
Mark stood handcuffed beside the patio table while I read Emily\u2019s letter again. He watched me fold it. \u201cYou believe everything she writes?\u201d \u201cYou just implied you know why she … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12481,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12461\/revisions\/12481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}