Chapter 4 - The Locked Phone
Adrian ordered the troopers to take David’s phone.
David immediately resisted.
“It contains privileged business communications.”
Adrian held out his hand.
“It also contains evidence subject to a federal preservation order.”
David stared at him.
“I want my lawyer.”
“You’ll have one.”
David looked at me.
“You planned this.”
I almost answered.
Then I realized he still believed the arrest was about revenge.
He still did not understand.
“I buried our daughter alone.”
My voice was quiet.
“This isn’t revenge.”
“This is what happened while you were gone.”
Julianne sat on the bottom stair.
Her shopping bag remained abandoned beside the front door.
She looked suddenly young.
Not glamorous.
Not victorious.
Just frightened.
Adrian turned to her.
“Ms. Vale, do you have your phone?”
She hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Do not delete anything.”
“I haven’t.”
David looked at her sharply.
“Julianne.”
Adrian raised one finger.
“Do not communicate with each other about evidence.”
David’s jaw clenched.
One trooper placed him in handcuffs.
The click of metal echoed through the empty mansion.
David looked down in disbelief.
Then he started crying.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
One tear rolled down his face.
For one weak second, the part of me that had loved him wanted to move.
Then I remembered Lily asking for him.
It had been 1:52 in the morning.
Her face was pale beneath the oxygen mask.
Her little fingers wrapped around mine.
“Is Daddy coming?”
I had lied.
“Yes, sweetheart.”
“He’s coming.”
David had been drinking champagne seventy miles off the coast of Nassau.
I stayed where I was.
As the troopers started walking him toward the door, Adrian’s phone rang.
He checked the screen.
Then he stopped.
“Hold him.”
David turned.
Adrian answered.
He listened without speaking.
His eyes moved toward me.
Something in his expression made my stomach tighten.
“What?”
I asked.
He ended the call.
“Forensic recovery finished on the cloud backup connected to Mr. Vance’s phone.”
David became very still.
Adrian looked at him.
“They recovered deleted messages.”
Julianne shot to her feet.
“What messages?”
David said nothing.
Adrian studied him for a long moment.
“Messages exchanged during the night Lily died.”
My pulse began pounding.
I had known there were deleted messages.
The investigators had told me recovery was possible.
But I had never seen them.
Adrian opened the secure file that had just arrived.
He read the first message silently.
Then the second.
His face hardened.
“What does it say?”
I asked.
David suddenly shouted.
“She doesn’t need to see that.”
Everyone looked at him.
That was the first time he truly lost control.
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“You know what was deleted?”
David realized too late what he had just admitted.
Julianne covered her mouth.
I took one step forward.
“Show me.”
Adrian hesitated.
“Maya.”
“Show me.”
He turned the screen toward me.
The first message had been sent from David to Julianne at 10:51 p.m.
Maya’s calling again.
Julianne had replied seconds later.
Block her for tonight.
She always creates a crisis when you’re happy.
The next message came from David.
Already blocked the hospital too.
Probably another fake emergency.
The room tilted beneath my feet.
May you like
But there were more messages below it.
And the next one was worse.
