Chapter 2 - THE LAST MESSAGE
The funeral service did not begin.
The director moved the guests into a side reception room.
Police officers guarded the entrance.
No one was formally under arrest.
Yet no one was allowed to leave until detectives completed initial interviews.
Daniel demanded privacy.
Vanessa demanded an attorney.
Emma asked only one question.
“Did you find the car?”
Detective Bennett nodded.
“At the airport.”
Daniel looked up.
“What car?”
Emma turned toward him.
“The one you said had been stolen.”
His expression shifted.
Only slightly.
But Bennett saw it.
Daniel had called Emma six days earlier from a Caribbean resort.
He said his car disappeared from the long-term parking garage.
He blamed airport security.
He filed no police report.
Emma had not challenged him.
At the time, Sofia was still alive.
Three nights later, Sofia collapsed in her bedroom.
The official cause had not been determined.
The emergency room found a dangerous concentration of a prescription heart medication in her blood.
No one in the house had been prescribed that drug.
Daniel was supposedly thousands of miles away.
Vanessa was with him.
Emma was alone with Sofia.
That made Emma the first person police questioned.
Then she found Sofia’s tablet.
The child had recorded a voice message at 10:42 p.m., less than an hour before she collapsed.
Mommy, Daddy came home. He said it’s a surprise. Aunt Vanessa is in the car.
Emma had been downstairs in the laundry room.
She never heard the door.
The message was never sent.
The tablet battery died before Sofia could upload it.
Emma recovered the file the morning of the funeral.
That was why she raised her phone.
The recording was copied there.
Daniel stared at her.
“You are confused.”
Emma pressed play.
Sofia’s voice filled the private viewing room.
Mommy, Daddy came home. He said it’s a surprise. Aunt Vanessa is in the car.
No one moved.
Vanessa whispered, “That’s impossible.”
Bennett looked at Daniel.
“Your passport records show you reentered the United States two days before Sofia died.”
Daniel said nothing.
“You used a different airport,” Bennett continued. “You then flew back out the following morning.”
Vanessa turned toward him.
“You told me you were meeting a client.”
Daniel’s eyes remained on Emma.
“She’s manipulating this.”
Emma’s voice was calm.
“Then explain why Sofia saw you.”
He stood.
An officer stepped between them.
Bennett placed a photograph on the table.
Airport parking footage showed Daniel beside his car at 8:17 p.m.
Another image showed Vanessa waiting in the passenger seat.
The timestamp matched the night Sofia recorded the message.
Vanessa began trembling.
“I never went inside.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Stop talking.”
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For the first time, Emma understood something.
Vanessa was terrified of him too.
