Chapter 9 - The Missing Pages
Harlan called Dana.
Evelyn stayed on the porch.
She seemed almost relieved when two police vehicles arrived.
Officer Ortega approached first.
Evelyn raised both hands and announced that she was unarmed.
From inside, Harlan watched the scene unfold on the security monitor.
A blue notebook sat on the porch step.
Evelyn had placed it there before officers arrived.
Dana arrived twenty minutes later.
Sadie remained asleep upstairs.
After officers determined there was no immediate threat, they allowed Harlan into the living room while Dana interviewed Evelyn at the dining table.
This time Harlan was not family to the witness.
He was part of her past.
That complicated everything.
Dana began.
“Why did you enter the school?”
Evelyn looked exhausted.
“I knew Sadie kept the notebook there.”
“How?”
“Sadie told me.”
Harlan’s pulse jumped.
Dana’s voice remained calm.
“You’ve had contact with Sadie?”
“Not in person.”
“How?”
Evelyn looked at Harlan.
“Online.”
Harlan’s stomach dropped.
“What platform?”
“A children’s drawing forum. Moderated. Public posts.”
“How did you know it was her?”
“She posted a picture of that yellow blanket. Her profile used the nickname Cora called her when she was a baby.”
“What nickname?”
“Sadie-Bird.”
Harlan remembered Maren occasionally using Birdie.
He had assumed it was random.
Evelyn continued.
“I didn’t tell her who I was at first.”
Dana’s expression sharpened.
“You communicated privately with an eight-year-old child without her parents knowing?”
“Yes.”
“Do you understand how concerning that is?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I had tried every legal way I knew.”
Her voice broke.
“I sent letters. Birthday cards. Requests through attorneys. Everything came back or disappeared.”
“Did you eventually tell Sadie who you were?”
“No.”
Harlan frowned.
“Then how did she tell you about the notebook?”
“She talked about writing things down because adults kept telling her she remembered things wrong.”
Evelyn wiped her face.
“I told her keeping a journal can help people understand their own feelings. I didn’t tell her to document evidence.”
Dana asked, “Why did you take it?”
“Because Sadie posted yesterday afternoon that Maren found out about the notebook again.”
“How?”
“She said her teacher called home about Sadie being hungry. Maren searched her backpack afterward.”
Harlan’s stomach turned.
Evelyn continued.
“Sadie wrote that she moved the notebook back to school because Maren couldn’t take it there.”
“But you did.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because at one in the morning Sadie posted a message.”
Harlan leaned forward.
“What message?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“She said she was alone and sick and Daddy wouldn’t answer.”
Harlan felt the blood leave his face.
“Why didn’t you call emergency services?”
“I did.”
Dana checked her notes.
“There was no call before Harlan’s.”
“I called the non-emergency line first because I didn’t know the exact address.”
“Why not?”
“I knew the neighborhood, not the number.”
Harlan understood.
Evelyn had been intentionally kept away.
Dana asked, “Then why go to the school at seven?”
“Because by then I learned she was at the hospital. I panicked.”
“About what?”
“That Maren would get the notebook first.”
“And you believed that because?”
“She had destroyed Sadie’s writing before.”
“You knew that?”
“Sadie posted about it.”
Dana opened an evidence sleeve containing the notebook.
Several pages had jagged edges near the binding.
“Were these pages missing when you took it?”
Evelyn nodded.
“Yes.”
“Did you remove any pages?”
“No.”
“Did you photograph the notebook?”
“Yes.”
“Where are those photographs?”
“My phone.”
She surrendered it.
Dana asked the most important question.
“You sent Harlan the anonymous messages?”
Evelyn nodded.
“Yes.”
“Why anonymously?”
“I didn’t know whether I could trust him.”
Harlan absorbed that.
It hurt.
But she had a right to say it.
Dana asked, “Why not?”
Evelyn looked directly at Harlan.
“Because he helped approve his son.”
Harlan’s chest tightened.
He almost corrected her.
He had only given a character reference.
But what difference would that distinction make to Evelyn?
His name had helped.
She had lost Sadie.
Harlan nodded once.
“You’re right.”
Evelyn seemed surprised.
“I vouched for Wesley and Maren,” he said. “I believed they would give her a safe home.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have asked more questions.”
“You weren’t the caseworker.”
“I spent my career teaching people to ask more questions.”
Dana let the silence sit.
Then she returned to the notebook.
“What exactly do you believe it proves about the adoption?”
Evelyn looked confused.
“It doesn’t.”
“You told Harlan it proved what they did.”
“What they did after.”
The room changed.
Dana leaned forward.
“Explain.”
Evelyn looked toward the ceiling, where Sadie slept.
“Sadie started writing because Maren kept telling her things hadn’t happened.”
“What things?”
“Being left alone. Missing meals. Threats about sending her back into foster care. Punishments for asking about Cora.”
Harlan’s hands curled into fists.
“Cora?”
“Maren told Sadie her mother abandoned her.”
“We learned that tonight.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No. It was worse.”
Dana asked, “How?”
Evelyn’s voice dropped.
“Maren told Sadie that Cora died because she was irresponsible.”
Harlan stared.
Evelyn continued.
“She said if Cora had loved Sadie enough, she would have driven more carefully.”
The room went silent.
Harlan felt physically sick.
Cora had died in a vehicle collision.
Using her death as a weapon against her child was cruelty of a kind that left no visible mark.
Dana asked Evelyn to continue.
“Sadie wrote dates. Exact words. She wrote every time Maren threatened to return her.”
“Return her where?”
“Foster care.”
Harlan closed his eyes.
Dana opened the notebook using gloves.
The entries began months earlier.
Childlike handwriting.
Short sentences.
June 4. Maren said maybe another family would like me better.
June 17. Daddy said stop making her mad.
June 30. No dinner because I hid cookies.
July 11. Maren locked pantry.
July 12. Daddy gave me cereal when she went to bed.
July 29. Maren said my first mom didn’t want me.
August 3. Daddy said she didn’t mean it.
August 8. I asked if I could live with Grandpa. Daddy got sad.
August 19. Maren said if I tell school lies they can send me away.
Then yesterday.
I feel hot.
Maren says I want attention.
Daddy said maybe stay home.
They are going anyway.
Harlan could not read further.
Dana closed the notebook.
Evelyn reached into her bag.
“There’s something else.”
Officer Ortega tensed.
Evelyn slowly removed a sealed envelope.
“I didn’t steal this.”
“What is it?”
“A copy of a letter I sent during the adoption.”
“To whom?”
“The court.”
Dana took it.
Evelyn continued.
“I requested emergency review because Lena Foster told me privately that someone was pressuring her to move the adoption quickly.”
Harlan looked up.
“Who?”
“She never gave me a name.”
“Why would she tell you that?”
“Because she felt guilty.”
Dana opened the letter.
“Did the court receive this?”
“I thought so.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Dana examined the stamped copy.
Then her expression changed.
“What?”
Evelyn pointed to the lower corner.
“There should be a docket number.”
There was none.
The letter had a courthouse date stamp.
But apparently had never been formally entered.
Someone had received it.
Someone had prevented it from becoming part of the case.
Harlan asked, “Who had access?”
Dana answered.
“Too many people to speculate.”
Evelyn looked at Harlan.
“That’s why Maren took the adoption folder.”
“You think she knows?”
“I think she’s always known more than she admitted.”
Harlan’s phone vibrated.
A message from Wesley.
Police found Maren’s car.
Harlan called immediately.
“Where?”
“At her sister’s apartment.”
“Is she there?”
“No.”
“Then where is she?”
Wesley’s next words changed the direction of the entire night.
“Her sister says Maren came by, changed clothes, took cash and left in another car.”
“What car?”
“Her sister’s.”
“Did she say where she was going?”
“No.”
“Anything else?”
May you like
Wesley inhaled.
“She took Sadie’s passport.”
