PART 3
Before anyone could say another word, Detective Collins carefully removed the USB flash drive from the metal box and handed it to the digital forensics officer.
"Bag it immediately," he ordered.
"No one opens it until it's logged into evidence."
Derek suddenly took a step forward.
"That doesn't prove anything."
"Clara was paranoid."
"She imagined people were following her."
Detective Collins slowly turned toward him.
"Interesting."
"We haven't even read the contents yet."
"So how do you know they don't prove anything?"
Derek froze.
His mouth opened slightly, but no words came out.
The detective made a note in his notebook.
"I'll remember that."
Meanwhile, I couldn't stop staring at Clara's letter.
Every sentence felt like she was speaking directly to me.
She had known she was in danger.
She had tried to leave me clues.
And I had been hundreds of miles away, believing everything was normal.
The guilt was almost unbearable.
Just then, another officer called from inside the bedroom.
"Detective!"
"You need to see this."
We hurried over.
The crime scene technician had sprayed a special chemical across the hardwood floor.
Slowly, strange dark stains began to appear.
They stretched from one side of the bed...
Across the room...
And toward the hallway.
Blood.
Someone had scrubbed the floor until it looked spotless.
But they hadn't removed everything.
The room became deathly quiet.
Detective Collins looked directly at my mother.
"You said your daughter-in-law died by suicide."
She swallowed hard.
"That's... that's what we believed."
He pointed toward the glowing stains.
"People who take their own lives don't usually clean up their blood afterward."
No one answered.
Then another discovery changed everything.
One of the forensic officers carefully lifted the mattress.
Hidden underneath was Clara's cellphone.
Its screen was cracked.
The battery was dead.
I stared in disbelief.
"Lily said Uncle Derek took Mommy's phone."
The detective nodded.
"Apparently someone hid it instead."
The technician connected the phone to a portable recovery device.
Several minutes later, the screen flickered back to life.
Dozens of missed calls appeared.
Every single one had been made to me.
Thirty-seven calls.
In one night.
None had reached me because my company-issued security phone had mysteriously blocked unknown incoming numbers during my assignment.
Then came the voice recordings.
The room fell silent as the first audio file played.
"Alex..."
It was Clara.
She sounded terrified.
"If you hear this... don't trust Derek."
"I found documents on his laptop."
"He keeps saying Mr. Vance will fix everything."
"I don't know what that means..."
A loud crash interrupted the recording.
Then Derek's voice could be heard clearly.
"You should have minded your own business."
Clara screamed.
The recording ended.
No one moved.
My hands were trembling with rage.
Mr. Vance.
My boss.
The same man who insisted I stay on my assignment.
The same man whose assistant had repeatedly told me my phone signal was unreliable because of "security protocols."
Had he trapped me away from home on purpose?
Detective Collins looked at another officer.
"Get a warrant."
"I want every communication between Derek and Mr. Nathan Vance over the last six months."
At the mention of the name, Aunt Beatrice suddenly became pale.
She quietly slipped one hand into her handbag.
An officer noticed immediately.
"Ma'am."
"Please place your bag on the table."
"It's only tissues," she replied nervously.
The officer opened the bag anyway.
Inside was a second cellphone.
It wasn't hers.
The lock screen displayed Clara's smiling face.
Everyone stared.
Lily burst into tears.
"That's Mommy's secret phone!"
Aunt Beatrice's face drained of color.
"I... I was keeping it safe."
Detective Collins wasn't convinced.
"Then why didn't you tell us you had it?"
She couldn't answer.
The officer unlocked the phone using Clara's fingerprint from the body at the funeral home.
Within seconds, hundreds of encrypted messages appeared.
Most were between Clara and someone saved only as 'N'.
The latest message, sent just hours before her death, read:
I have copied every file. If anything happens to me, Alex will know the truth.
A reply arrived just one minute later.
Then Alex won't be coming home alive either.
The room went completely silent.
Even the officers exchanged uneasy glances.
Detective Collins slowly looked up.
"This case is no longer just about Clara's death."
He turned to me with a grim expression.
"Mr. Carter..."
"I believe your life is in immediate danger."
At that exact moment, a patrol officer rushed into the bedroom, breathing heavily.
"Detective!"
"Someone just broke into Mr. Carter's company office."
"The entire security server has been wiped."
"And according to witnesses..."
"The company director, Nathan Vance, boarded a private helicopter less than fifteen minutes ago."
He wasn't running from the investigation.
He was running before the investigation could reach him.
