Chapter 8 - The Mother We Never Knew
Police located Vanessa’s car behind an abandoned grocery store eleven miles from the hospital.
The driver’s door was open.
Her purse was on the passenger seat.
Her phone was gone.
There was no blood.
No sign of a struggle.
Security footage showed Vanessa parking at 8:46 p.m.
Seven minutes later, a gray sedan pulled beside her.
Vanessa got out voluntarily.
Then she climbed into the sedan.
The driver never appeared clearly on camera.
At 9:18, another camera captured the sedan heading north.
My mother owned a gray sedan.
So did thousands of other people.
Police returned to my parents’ house.
My mother was there.
Her car was in the garage.
She claimed she had not left all evening.
My father confirmed it.
Then officers checked the engine.
It was warm.
Mom said she had driven to the pharmacy.
There was no pharmacy receipt.
Her phone location history had been disabled.
Detective Cole called me shortly before midnight.
“Your mother has an attorney now.”
“What about Dad?”
“He does too.”
“Are they under arrest?”
“Not yet.”
I hated those words.
Not yet.
Emma slept through most of the night.
I didn’t.
At 2:13 a.m., I received a message from an unknown number.
You want Vanessa alive?
Do not give police Andrew’s recorder.
I immediately showed the nurse.
Security notified Cole.
The digital recorder was already in police custody.
Whoever sent the message either didn’t know that or hoped I could retrieve it.
Cole arrived forty minutes later.
“The number is spoofed.”
“What’s on the recorder?”
“We haven’t finished reviewing it.”
“But there’s something important.”
He hesitated.
“Yes.”
Andrew had recorded several conversations.
One was with my father.
Another was with Vanessa.
A third was labeled M.
“Mom?”
“We think so.”
Cole played twelve seconds.
Andrew’s voice came first.
“If anything happens to Emma, Rachel will know.”
Then my mother.
“No, she won’t.”
I pressed my hand against my mouth.
Andrew answered.
“You underestimate her.”
Mom laughed.
“I raised her.”
The recording ended.
“That’s all?”
“That particular file continues for thirty-eight minutes.”
“What else does she say?”
“We need investigators to review the entire thing.”
“I’m his wife.”
“And this is now evidence in several possible crimes.”
I hated that he was right.
At 4:07 a.m., Emma woke screaming.
I rushed to her bedside.
“No pan.”
She sobbed.
“No pan, Mommy.”
I held her carefully.
“There’s no pan here.”
“Grandma said Aunt Vanessa needed me to tell.”
“Tell what?”
Emma’s breathing became uneven.
I waited.
“Daddy’s hiding place.”
My heart stopped.
“What hiding place?”
She pointed weakly toward her own hair.
“Daddy said remember the song.”
“What song?”
She whispered.
“Four seventeen, under green, where the bird can’t be seen.”
The words meant nothing to me.
Then she added something else.
“Grandma knew it too.”
I called Cole.
By sunrise, investigators had searched Andrew’s locker again.
Nothing matched the rhyme.
Then Caroline remembered something.
Andrew used to take Emma to Greenbird Park.
There was an old bronze bird statue near the playground.
At 7:30 a.m., police searched beneath it.
Under one of the paving stones, they found a waterproof tube.
Inside was a memory card.
And attached to the card was a note.
If Margaret is still controlling the family, trust nobody who says this began with Robert.
Robert was my father.
May you like
Andrew was telling me the entire fraud scheme had not started with him.
It had started with my mother.
