Chapter 8
The arrest warrant came the next morning.
Ryan disappeared before police reached his apartment.
Lauren disappeared too.
That frightened me more than anything.
Two people.
One secret phone.
Hundreds of thousands of missing dollars.
And now both were gone.
Police searched the downtown apartment Ryan had been paying for.
They found Lauren’s clothes.
Ryan’s clothes.
Cash.
Three passports.
And a locked metal box.
Inside were copies of financial records belonging to me.
My Social Security number.
Old tax returns.
Signatures.
Loan applications I had never seen.
Ryan hadn’t only stolen from me.
He had built another financial identity using my name.
Detective Morgan called me into the station.
“There’s something you need to prepare yourself for.”
I laughed bitterly.
“People keep saying that to me.”
She placed a photograph on the table.
Lauren.
Blonde hair.
Green eyes.
Perfect smile.
Then Morgan placed another photograph beside it.
My mother.
I frowned.
“What am I looking at?”
“Lauren visited your mother three days before the crash.”
My heart stopped.
“How do you know?”
“A neighbor had a doorbell camera. We recovered old cloud records.”
“Why would Lauren visit her?”
“We don’t know.”
Morgan played a short video.
Lauren stood on my mother’s porch.
My mother opened the door.
They argued.
No audio.
Then my mother handed Lauren an envelope.
Lauren walked away.
“What was in the envelope?”
“We believe financial documents.”
“Why give them to Lauren?”
Morgan shook her head.
“Maybe Lauren was helping her.”
That possibility changed everything.
“What if Lauren wasn’t Ryan’s partner back then?”
“We’re investigating.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Ryan.
Standing beside a motel door.
Under it was a message.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH.
Morgan immediately took my phone.
“Don’t respond.”
Another message arrived.
ASK LAUREN WHO YOUR MOTHER TRUSTED.
Then a third.
YOU HAVE TWO HOURS.
Morgan ordered officers to trace the number.
I stared at the photograph.
“Ryan wants me to find him.”
“He wants control.”
“What if Lauren is with him?”
“We’ll handle it.”
But then my phone rang.
Lauren.
Morgan nodded for me to answer.
I put it on speaker.
“Lauren?”
She was whispering.
“Emily, don’t believe him.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t say.”
“Are you with Ryan?”
“No.”
Morgan wrote something and showed it to me.
KEEP HER TALKING.
“Why did you visit my mother?”
Lauren went silent.
“Lauren?”
“Because she hired me.”
My mouth went dry.
“To do what?”
“To investigate Ryan.”
Everything shifted.
“My mother hired you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She knew he was stealing from you. She thought Diane was helping him.”
I looked through the glass at Thomas.
“Were you sleeping with Ryan then?”
“No.”
“When did that start?”
“Two years ago.”
“Why?”
Lauren began crying.
“It wasn’t supposed to become real.”
“What does that mean?”
“I got close to him because your mother asked me to.”
My stomach turned.
“My mother died three years ago.”
“I kept investigating after she died.”
“By becoming his girlfriend?”
“Yes.”
I wanted to hate her.
Maybe I still did.
But suddenly the story wasn’t simple anymore.
“Did Ryan kill my mother?”
Lauren’s breathing changed.
“I can prove he followed her.”
Morgan leaned closer.
“How?”
“I have the original dashcam card.”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“Where?”
“I hid it.”
“Then give it to police.”
“I was going to.”
“Why haven’t you?”
“Because Ryan knows I have it.”
A car door slammed through the call.
Lauren gasped.
Then whispered, “Oh God.”
“What?”
“He found me.”
The line went dead.
Morgan was already moving.
Officers rushed into the hall.
Before she left, she looked at me.
“We traced her phone.”
“Where is she?”
May you like
Morgan’s expression tightened.
“The Riverside gas station.”
