Chapter 6 - THE OFFICER WHO TOUCHED THE EVIDENCE
Detective Morales locked the entire crime scene down.
No officer left without being logged.
Body camera footage was seized.
Evidence handlers were separated.
Emma watched developments from the hospital, increasingly furious that everyone else could move while she remained trapped beneath white sheets.
Caleb returned after midnight.
He found her sitting upright with a laptop.
“You’re supposed to be sleeping.”
“I slept for three days.”
“You were unconscious.”
“Exactly.”
He sat beside her.
Emma turned the screen.
“I searched Carter Biomedical.”
Caleb frowned.
“What did you find?”
“Almost nothing about my mother.”
“That’s probably intentional.”
“But I found Vivian.”
Emma clicked an archived corporate profile.
Vivian Lawson.
Deputy General Counsel, Carter Biomedical.
Photo dated twenty-one years earlier.
She was younger, but unmistakable.
Beside her stood Peter Carter.
Emma’s uncle.
And behind them was Richard.
Emma stared at her father.
“He worked there too.”
“What did he do?”
“Financial compliance.”
Caleb leaned back.
“So everyone around your mother was tied to the company.”
Emma nodded.
“Except me.”
Caleb looked at her.
“You’re tied to it more than any of them.”
The door opened.
Morales entered.
She looked exhausted.
“We identified the officer who handled the missing paper.”
Emma closed the laptop.
“Who?”
“Officer Marcus Dale.”
“Does he know Vivian?”
“Not directly.”
“That sounds like a technical answer.”
Morales sat down.
“His mother worked for Carter Biomedical.”
Emma frowned.
“When?”
“During the clinical trials your father mentioned.”
Caleb asked, “Is she alive?”
“No.”
Emma waited.
Morales continued.
“She died seventeen years ago.”
“Cause?”
“Suicide.”
Emma looked away.
Morales placed a photograph on the table.
Marcus Dale was forty-three.
Clean-cut.
Ordinary.
“He claims he did not remove anything.”
“Do you believe him?”
“No.”
“Is he arrested?”
“Not yet.”
Emma stared at her.
“Why not?”
“Because his body camera shows another person entering Richard’s study during the relevant window.”
“Who?”
Morales slid another image forward.
Emma recognized the man.
Her cousin Daniel Carter.
He had been handcuffed outside Emma’s hospital room.
Daniel was thirty-four, the son of Richard’s older brother Peter.
Growing up, Daniel had been the closest thing Emma had to an older brother.
He taught her how to ride a bicycle.
He brought her ice cream after Vivian punished her.
He once told her, “When you’re old enough, get out of this house.”
Emma swallowed.
“Daniel?”
“He entered the study before his arrest.”
“What did he say?”
“That he was looking for medication for Richard.”
“Did he take the paper?”
“He says no.”
Emma rubbed her forehead.
“Everyone says no.”
Morales nodded.
“That’s why we use evidence.”
“What was on the missing paper?”
“We have a partial image from the officer’s initial photograph.”
Morales opened her tablet.
The paper was folded.
Only a few words could be seen.
Emma zoomed in.
THE SECOND BENEFICIARY.
Her stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“We don’t know.”
Emma almost laughed.
Caleb touched her shoulder.
Morales continued.
“But we found another name in your mother’s trust registration.”
Emma looked up.
“What name?”
“A co-beneficiary.”
Emma’s heartbeat quickened.
“Who?”
“The record is sealed.”
“Of course it is.”
Morales nodded.
“But there’s a birth year.”
Emma waited.
“2004.”
Emma was born in 2004.
Caleb frowned.
“Twins?”
Emma stared at him.
“No.”
She looked at Morales.
“My mother only had one child.”
“As far as you were told.”
Emma’s skin went cold.
“That’s impossible.”
Morales did not answer.
Emma stood too quickly.
The room swayed.
Caleb caught her.
“No.”
She pushed him away gently.
“Don’t.”
“Emma—”
“Everyone keeps telling me what I can handle.”
She turned toward Morales.
“I was drugged. My mother was imprisoned. My father lied about her death. My stepmother tried to steal my inheritance. And now you’re telling me there might be another beneficiary born the same year I was.”
Morales held her gaze.
“Yes.”
Emma took a slow breath.
“Then find them.”
Morales’s phone vibrated.
She checked it.
Her expression sharpened.
“What?”
Morales looked at Emma.
“The genetic lab finished preliminary testing on the blood from the hidden room.”
Emma gripped the bedrail.
“And?”
“It belongs to a close maternal relative of yours.”
Emma whispered, “My mother.”
Morales paused.
“Not necessarily.”
“Why?”
“Because we found two separate DNA profiles.”
Emma stared at her.
“One is consistent with your maternal line.”
“And the other?”
Morales looked directly at her.
“The other is close enough to yours that the lab wants a second sample.”
Emma could barely form the words.
“How close?”
May you like
Morales answered.
“Sibling-level close.”
