Chapter 13 - The Phone in the Vent
Police searched Janice Pike’s former apartment.
The kitchen vent was empty.
Janice denied a second phone existed.
Then Marcus found surveillance footage from the apartment building showing Janice returning there at 3:12 a.m. the night after Emma was removed.
She left eleven minutes later carrying a small black pouch.
Detective Ortiz confronted her.
Janice asked for a lawyer.
By evening, she was negotiating.
Margaret learned only pieces because prosecutors refused to let her interfere.
“She wants immunity?” Margaret asked Evelyn.
“Likely limited protection.”
“She forged guardianship documents and helped hide Emma.”
“Which is why prosecutors will not give her complete immunity.”
“She neglected a child.”
“And she may have evidence of homicide, fraud and witness intimidation.”
Margaret looked disgusted.
“So she gets rewarded.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“This is where your need for moral symmetry becomes dangerous.”
Margaret stiffened.
“What does that mean?”
“It means the justice system isn’t your dining table. You don’t decide everyone’s portion of punishment.”
Margaret said nothing.
Two days later Laura was released pending the final decision on her conviction.
The district attorney agreed the evidence undermined confidence in the plea.
Emma’s foster placement ended that evening.
The reunion took place at the child advocacy center.
Emma ran across the room.
“Mom!”
Laura dropped to her knees and caught her.
For several minutes neither noticed anyone else.
Margaret stood near the wall.
She had imagined this moment differently.
Perhaps Emma looking back.
Perhaps Laura thanking her.
Neither happened.
And Margaret realized that was exactly as it should be.
This moment belonged to them.
Later Laura approached.
“Thank you.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Evelyn did most of it.”
“You paid Evelyn.”
Margaret almost smiled.
“There it is.”
Laura’s expression softened slightly.
Then her phone buzzed.
She read a message and went pale.
“What?”
Laura handed Margaret the phone.
UNKNOWN NUMBER:
YOU SHOULD HAVE KEPT RUNNING.
Below it was a photograph.
Emma leaving the advocacy center ten minutes earlier.
Margaret’s anger ignited.
“We call police.”
Laura grabbed her arm.
“No.”
Margaret stared.
“What?”
“If Andrew thinks I’m scared, maybe he makes a mistake.”
“You want to use yourself as bait?”
“I spent five years being manipulated because everyone else decided what I could handle.”
“This is different.”
“Why?”
“Because Emma—”
Laura’s eyes hardened.
“Do not use my daughter to take control of me again.”
Margaret stopped.
Again.
The word hurt.
Laura continued.
“We call police. But we don’t hide.”
Margaret nodded slowly.
“Fine.”
It was the first decision they made together.
That night Janice surrendered the black phone.
Its recordings were devastating.
In one, Andrew could be heard arguing with her.
“You were supposed to keep them invisible.”
Janice replied, “Then stop sending notices to Laura’s real name.”
“I needed the plea finished.”
“She won’t sign away Emma’s claims.”
“She won’t need to after the death declaration.”
Another recording captured Janice saying, “What happens if Margaret finds out Emma’s alive?”
Andrew laughed.
“She won’t.”
“You sound confident.”
“I know my mother. She sees what she expects to see.”
Margaret listened in Evelyn’s office.
The cruelty was almost elegant.
He had understood Margaret’s greatest weakness.
Her certainty.
The final recording was less clear.
Thomas Vale’s voice could be heard.
“We should never have touched the car.”
Andrew replied, “You handled it.”
Vale said, “I handled a scare.”
Andrew’s voice sharpened.
“No. You handled what had to be handled.”
Then silence.
The recording was powerful.
But ambiguous.
Evelyn warned Margaret.
“It may support the broader case, but Andrew will argue they were discussing something else.”
“What else could ‘the car’ mean?”
“A defense lawyer only needs possibilities.”
Then Laura arrived carrying a small envelope.
“I found this in Emma’s red coat.”
Inside was a folded receipt from a convenience store.
On the back, in childish handwriting, were four numbers.
4 1 7 9.
Margaret frowned.
“What is this?”
Emma stood behind Laura.
“Aunt Janice made me remember it.”
“Why?”
“She said if police ever came, I should tell her the number.”
“What does it open?”
Emma shook her head.
“Did she say?”
Emma thought hard.
Then whispered, “She called it her escape money.”
Detective Ortiz checked the number against Janice’s seized property.
It matched the PIN on a prepaid debit account.
The account held $312,000.
Deposits came from Northstar.
But one transfer was different.
Sixty thousand dollars.
Sent five years earlier.
The same week Daniel died.
May you like
The memo line contained two words.
FINAL CAR.
