Chapter 5 - The Missing Twelve Minutes
I touched my wrist.
Bare.
“I didn’t know it was gone.”
Nathan stared at the bracelet through the plastic. “I gave you that in Napa.”
“I remember.”
Ortiz asked, “Any chance you left it in the SUV earlier?”
“I’ve never been inside that SUV.”
Richard appeared behind her. “This is becoming theatrical.”
Ortiz turned. “You were told to remain in the ballroom.”
“My attorney is on the way.”
“Good. You can talk to him when he gets here.”
Richard looked at the evidence bag and went still.
Not shocked.
Recognizing.
I noticed.
“So you’ve seen my bracelet tonight,” I said.
His gaze returned to me. “Of course I have. You were wearing it.”
“Not from across a ballroom.”
Nathan stepped between us. “Dad, stop.”
Richard’s voice dropped. “You need to decide whose side you’re on.”
Nathan laughed without humor. “That’s the problem. There are only sides with you.”
The paramedic insisted I go to the hospital. Ortiz agreed, but asked permission to copy my phone first. I gave it to her technician.
That was when they found the gap.
Twelve minutes of audio were missing.
The voice memo ran for fifty-three minutes. The file should have been continuous. Instead, between 9:14 and 9:26 p.m., there was a clean digital cut.
“Could the fall have caused it?” I asked.
The technician shook his head. “Not like this.”
Nathan leaned closer. “Someone edited it?”
“Someone accessed the file.”
“When?”
The technician tapped the screen. “At 9:31.”
I looked at the clock.
I had walked back into the ballroom at 9:38.
At 9:31, I was climbing out of the ravine.
My phone had been in my hand.
Or I thought it had.
A memory flashed.
Cold mud. My knee bleeding. My fingers reaching through grass.
My phone was several feet away, screen glowing.
And for a few seconds, I had heard footsteps above me.
Someone could have climbed down, taken it, deleted the middle, and dropped it back.
“Can you recover it?” I asked.
“Maybe.”
Victoria’s voice came from the hall. “This is insane.”
She had ignored the officer and followed Richard.
Ortiz stepped out. “Mrs. Vale, return to the ballroom.”
Victoria looked at me instead.
Her perfect hair had started to come loose.
“You have no idea what you’re doing,” she said.
“I’m staying alive.”
She smiled sadly.
“No, Emma. You’re making sure the wrong person pays.”
May you like
Then she looked at Nathan.
And said, “Tell her what happened to Caroline.”
