Chapter 8 - The Second Recording
The technician called at 11:30 that night.
He had recovered another video.
Emily, Daniel, and Detective Morales gathered around a monitor inside the station.
The footage showed Rebecca returning to the house after her first departure.
She entered through the side door.
“How did she get in?” Daniel asked.
“She must have copied a key,” Emily replied.
The camera’s microphone captured only pieces of audio from inside the living room.
A cabinet opening.
Glass touching wood.
Rebecca speaking on the phone.
The sound was faint, but understandable.
“Once they sign the transfer, the house will belong to the trust.”
Then came the words that silenced everyone.
“By the time their daughter understands what happened, it will already be sold.”
The person on the phone asked about Emily’s parents.
Rebecca answered that they would wake up confused and that everyone would blame their medication.
Daniel covered his face.
“I brought her into their lives,” he said.
“No,” Emily replied. “Dad met her before your loan.”
“But she used me.”
“She used all of us.”
Morales paused the video as Rebecca walked out through the front door.
“There is still a problem,” he said. “The audio suggests a plan, but her attorney may argue that we misunderstood the conversation.”
“She brought something into the house.”
“The video does not clearly show what it was.”
Emily stared at Rebecca’s hand on the screen.
A white handkerchief covered a small object.
Then Emily noticed the receipt beneath Rebecca’s leather folder.
QuickPrint Business Center.
The same place printed on the receipt beneath the mug.
“Can you check the copy shop’s security cameras?” Emily asked.
Morales looked at the time printed on the recovered footage.
“Yes.”
The next morning, the copy shop manager provided video of Rebecca printing replacement trust pages and practicing Robert Carter’s signature on scrap paper.
May you like
She had paid in cash.
But she had left the receipt behind at the Carter home.
