Chapter 8: The Woman in the Green Dress
Police surrounded the Hartwell records facility.
It was a three-story brick warehouse beside the railroad tracks.
Most of the windows had been boarded up years earlier.
The company claimed it was used only for storage.
I knew that wasn’t true the moment I saw smoke rising from the roof.
“He’s burning the records,” I said.
Fire crews waited two blocks away while officers searched for Sophie.
Maya refused to let me enter.
I didn’t argue.
Not until Lauren’s phone rang.
Amber.
The maid of honor.
Lauren answered on speaker.
“Amber, where are you?”
“I didn’t know what he was going to do.”
Her voice was breathless.
“Where is Sophie?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop lying.”
“I only took the flower basket. Preston paid me five thousand dollars. He said there was a business drive inside and Evelyn had stolen it from the company.”
“Did you find it?”
“Yes.”
My hand clenched around the phone.
“What did you do with it?”
“I gave it to Preston in the parking garage.”
“When?”
“Before the police locked down the hotel.”
That was how he escaped with the drive.
“Where are you now?” Maya asked.
Amber hesitated.
“At the train station.”
“Stay there. Officers are coming.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Preston knows I recorded him.”
A train announcement echoed behind her.
“What did you record?” I asked.
“The meeting before the wedding. Preston and your father were arguing. Preston wanted to call off the plan.”
That surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because your father changed it.”
“What was the original plan?”
“To plant the phone, embarrass Sophie, and force you to leave.”
“And the new plan?”
Amber started crying.
“Your father told Preston to make sure you never brought the audit evidence to anyone.”
A train roared into the station.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. But Preston said, ‘I’ll take the drive. I’m not hurting Evelyn.’”
My father had demanded something worse than theft.
Something Preston initially refused to do.
Maya ordered Amber to send the recording immediately.
Before Amber could respond, the line went silent.
“Amber?”
No answer.
Then the phone disconnected.
An officer ran toward us from the warehouse perimeter.
“We found the vehicle used to take the child.”
“Is Sophie inside?”
“No. It’s empty.”
My heart stopped.
“But there’s blood on the passenger seat.”
I tried to move past him.
Maya caught my arm.
“We don’t know whose it is.”
Another officer emerged carrying a small white shoe sealed inside an evidence bag.
Sophie’s shoe.
It had been found beside the warehouse loading dock.
Then the disposable phone sent one final message.
You should have stayed silent like everyone else.
The message wasn’t signed.
May you like
It didn’t need to be.
I recognized my father’s words.
