Chapter 5 - The Last Call.
Leah's accident had happened on a Tuesday night in October.
For two years, I had trained myself not to replay the final hour.
That morning in the hospital, Diana forced it back into my life.
Leah and I had argued about money.
Not because we were broke.
Because Diana had offered to pay off the remaining mortgage on our house if we agreed to move closer to the Holloway estate.
I refused.
Leah wanted to consider it.
The argument became sharper than either of us intended.
Leah left to clear her head.
Forty-two minutes later, a state trooper knocked on my door.
Her car had gone through a guardrail on County Route 18.
The investigation found wet pavement, excessive speed for the curve, and no mechanical failure.
There were no other vehicles captured by the traffic camera three miles back.
No witness saw the crash.
The report called it a single-vehicle accident.
I accepted that because I had no reason not to.
What I never understood was the last phone call.
Leah had called an unregistered prepaid number at 9:18 p.m.
The call lasted six minutes and eleven seconds.
She crashed at approximately 9:31.
Police traced the number to a phone bought with cash two weeks earlier.
It stopped connecting to the network the night Leah died.
I had asked Diana whether Leah kept a second phone.
She said no.
I had asked Leah's friends.
No one recognized the number.
Eventually, people told me grief was making me search for meaning where there was none.
So I stopped.
Now Emma was telling me Diana had shown her an accident photo and blamed me for Leah leaving the house.
That meant Diana had been thinking about that night too.
Megan waited until Emma fell asleep again before she spoke.
"Tell me everything about the call record."
I did.
She listened without interrupting.
Then she asked, "Do you still have the police file?"
"At home."
"Original or copy?"
"Copy."
"Get it as soon as you can."
"Why?"
"Because I want to know whether Diana ever requested the file herself."
I frowned.
"Why would that matter?"
"Maybe it doesn't."
Megan gathered her papers.
"But right now, I don't like coincidences."
At seven forty, the hospital cleared Emma to remain for observation through late morning.
I called Kate and asked her to go to my house.
"Get the blue storage box from the top shelf in my office closet," I said.
"What's in it?"
"Leah's accident documents."
Kate went quiet.
"Why do you need those now?"
"Because Diana showed Emma a crash photo."
"What?"
"Just get the box."
"I'm already leaving."
Twenty minutes later, Kate called again.
Her voice was different.
"Daniel."
"What happened?"
"Your front door is open."
I stood so fast the chair beside Emma's bed rolled backward.
"Don't go inside."
"I already did."
"Kate."
"I'm fine."
I could hear her breathing.
"Your office has been searched."
Megan looked up.
"What do you mean searched?" I asked.
"Desk drawers open. Closet boxes moved. Papers everywhere."
"Call the police."
"I did."
"Is the blue box there?"
Silence.
"Kate?"
"No."
My stomach dropped.
"The accident file is gone?"
"The whole box."
Megan held out her hand for the phone.
"Kate, do not touch anything else. Go outside and wait for officers."
"Okay."
"Was anything valuable taken?"
"I don't know. Daniel's laptop is still on the desk. Television is there."
"Jewelry?"
"I haven't checked."
"Don't."
After the call ended, Megan said exactly what I was thinking.
"Someone wanted the file."
"Diana."
"Possibly."
"Who else?"
"We need evidence, Daniel."
"I'm getting tired of that sentence."
"Then get used to it, because evidence is what keeps Emma with you."
That stopped me.
Megan's voice softened.
"I know you're angry."
"You don't know half of it."
"You're right."
She closed her laptop.
"But Diana expects anger. She has built part of her case around it."
I looked at Emma.
"Then she doesn't get it anymore."
At eight fifteen, Detective Price came to the hospital in person.
He had not slept either.
"Your house was entered sometime between midnight and seven," he said.
"No forced entry."
"How?"
"Back door keypad."
I stared at him.
"Someone used the code?"
"Looks that way."
"Who has it?"
"You tell me."
I started listing people.
Kate.
My father.
Megan once had it during probate, but I had changed it since then.
Emma's babysitter after Rachel, a college student named Nora.
And Diana.
I stopped.
"Diana knew the old code."
Price shook his head.
"The keypad log shows the current code."
"She doesn't know it."
"Then someone who does either entered the house or gave it to someone else."
I thought of Nora.
She had watched Emma three evenings in the past month.
She was twenty-one, careful, quiet, and studying early childhood education.
I could not imagine her working with Diana.
But twenty-four hours ago, I could not imagine Rachel signing a false affidavit either.
"Can you tell which code was used?"
"Your system stores only successful entry, not individual user IDs."
"Of course."
Price sat across from me.
"Anything else missing?"
"Kate hasn't found anything obvious."
"So somebody bypassed forced entry, searched your office, and took a box containing records from your wife's accident."
"Yes."
He rubbed his jaw.
"Why?"
"That's what I'd like to know."
I told him what Emma had said about the photograph.
His expression grew serious.
"Did the original accident investigation include scene photographs?"
"Yes."
"Were they given to Diana?"
"I don't know."
Price made a note.
"I'll find out."
"What about the prepaid number Leah called?"
"I'll pull the archived case."
"Can you trace it now?"
"Technology has changed, but a cash phone that went dark two years ago is still a cash phone that went dark two years ago."
"Try."
"I will."
He leaned forward.
"Daniel, there's something else."
My entire weekend had become a series of those words.
"Say it."
"Diana filed a complaint against you this morning."
"For hitting her."
"Yes."
"I already admitted it."
"She also says you threatened to kill her."
I laughed in disbelief.
"I did not."
"Any witnesses?"
"Mateo."
"He didn't hear a threat."
"Then why are we talking about it?"
"Because Voss delivered a written statement from Rachel Moore."
My mouth went dry.
"Rachel says she was still on the property when I arrived?"
"She says she returned after leaving because she forgot her purse."
"The camera shows her car leaving at ten twenty-three."
"It also shows a gray SUV entering the south gate at ten forty-nine."
I stared at him.
"Three minutes before I got there."
"Yes."
"Is it hers?"
"Plate is obscured by rain."
"And she claims she heard me threaten Diana."
"She claims she heard you say, 'I'll make sure you never see another morning.'"
I felt sick.
"I never said that."
"I know what the surviving camera audio captures."
"Does it capture me?"
"Not clearly. Rain and distance."
"So it's her word against mine."
"For now."
Megan crossed her arms.
"Rachel is becoming very useful to Diana."
Price looked at her.
"Useful people usually get paid."
"You checking?"
"Already requested financial records where we legally can."
He stood.
"And I suggest neither of you contact her."
After he left, my phone rang from an unknown number.
Megan motioned for me not to answer.
I let it go to voicemail.
Thirty seconds later, a notification appeared.
One new voicemail.
I played it on speaker.
At first, there was only breathing.
Then a woman's voice.
Rachel.
"Daniel, I need to talk to you before Monday."
She sounded terrified.
"I can't explain on the phone."
A pause.
"Diana doesn't know I'm calling."
Another breath.
"Please don't believe everything I signed."
The message ended.
Megan and I stared at the phone.
"Trap?" I asked.
"Could be."
"Or she's scared."
"Could be."
The phone rang again.
Same number.
This time a text appeared instead.
I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO LEAH'S PHONE.
I stopped breathing for a second.
May you like
Then another message came.
AND I KNOW WHO HAD IT AFTER THE CRASH.
