PART 3 — THE VIDEO
I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen.
Emma was looking at me as if she were still sitting right in front of me.
As if I could reach out and touch her at any moment.
“My accident… may not have been an accident at all.”
Those words kept spinning around inside my head.
I turned around.
“What does that mean?”
No one answered.
Daniel stood beside the door with his fists clenched.
One of the girls started crying softly.
I walked toward him.
“You knew about this?”
He looked up.
“Not everything.”
“But you knew Emma was afraid.”
He slowly nodded.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“She made us promise we would wait.”
“Wait for what?”
My voice became louder.
“My daughter is dead!”
Daniel flinched slightly.
“We know.”
“Then you should have told me!”
He looked at me with tears in his eyes.
“Emma didn’t want you to live in fear.”
I wanted to scream.
But at that moment, the video started playing again.
Emma was now sitting at her desk.
Papers were scattered around her.
“I know Mom is going to think I was crazy.”
She gave a small laugh.
“But I’m not crazy.”
She held up a small notebook.
“I found this in the library.”
She turned it around.
The cover showed a year.
1998.
“It’s an old diary.”
Emma opened a page.
“And inside it, there is something about a tradition at our school.”
She flipped through the pages.
“A tradition nobody remembers anymore.”
She looked directly into the camera.
“The red noses.”
A chill ran down my spine.
“Many years ago, graduating students had to wear a red clown nose during a secret ceremony.”
She smiled slightly.
“It sounds ridiculous.”
But then her smile disappeared.
“Until I discovered why.”
The screen changed.
An old black-and-white photograph appeared.
A group of students.
All wearing red noses.
Behind them stood the same school.
But underneath the picture was a date.
June 12, 1998.
“On that night, a student disappeared.”
Emma’s voice became softer.
“A girl named Laura Bennett.”
I looked at Daniel.
He slowly nodded.
Emma continued.
“The school said she ran away.”
She shook her head.
“But her best friend never believed that.”
The video showed a picture of a young woman.
“Shortly before she disappeared, Laura discovered something.”
A brief silence followed.
“She found evidence that someone inside the school was changing grades.”
The room became freezing cold.
I looked at the principal.
He was standing near the door.
His face had gone pale.
Emma continued.
“Not just grades.”
She looked into the camera.
“Diplomas.”
My heart started pounding.
“Diplomas were being sold.”
Daniel whispered:
“That’s why we wanted everyone here today.”
I turned toward him.
“Why?”
He pointed at the projector.
“Because Emma discovered it was still happening.”
My mouth fell open.
“What?”
“She had names.”
“Which names?”
He stayed silent.
On the screen, Emma appeared again.
“There are people who pay a lot of money to make sure their children graduate.”
She took a deep breath.
“And some people who refuse to be part of it disappear.”
I felt a knot forming in my stomach.
“Emma…”
She looked directly at the camera.
“If something happens to me, look for the red nose.”
The video stopped.
Nobody spoke.
I could only hear my own breathing.
Then the principal said:
“Mrs…”
I turned toward him.
“Did you know about this?”
He shook his head.
“I knew about Laura.”
“But not about Emma?”
“No.”
“I don’t believe you.”
He looked directly at me.
“Your daughter spoke to me three days before her accident.”
My entire body froze.
“What did she say?”
He looked down.
“She told me she had found evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“A list.”
“With names?”
He nodded.
“And payments.”
My fingers started trembling.
“Where is that list?”
He looked at Daniel.
Daniel looked back at him.
Then he said:
“That’s the problem.”
“What?”
“The list is missing.”
I looked at everyone.
“When?”
“The day of Emma’s accident.”
My heart seemed to stop.
I remembered that day.
The phone call.
The police.
The hospital.
The rain.
My daughter.
Everything came rushing back.
“Where did the accident happen?”
“On the country road,” Daniel said.
“Was anyone with her?”
“No.”
“Was her phone found?”
Daniel went silent.
I looked at him.
“Was her phone found?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
He slowly took out his phone.
He opened a photo.
“This is the place where her car went off the road.”
I looked at the picture.
And then I noticed something.
At the edge of the image.
A small red object.
I grabbed his phone.
Zoomed in.
My breath stopped.
A red clown nose.
“That was there,” Daniel whispered.
“The police said it meant nothing.”
I looked at him.
“And you?”
“I believed it was a message.”
I looked at the screen again.
Then I noticed something else.
Under the red nose was a small piece of paper.
“Zoom in.”
Daniel did it.
The picture became clearer.
Three words appeared.
LOOK UNDER THE BLEACHERS.
I felt my heart rise into my throat.
“Which bleachers?”
Daniel looked at me.
“These.”
He pointed outside.
“The bleachers where you were sitting this morning.”
I felt my heartbeat racing.
We ran back.
The hall was almost empty now.
But underneath the wooden bleachers was a narrow hidden space.
Daniel knelt down.
He pushed aside a small panel.
Behind it was a metal box.
No lock.
Only a note.
I immediately recognized the handwriting.
Emma.
MOM, IF YOU FOUND THIS, IT MEANS YOU BELIEVED ME.
I opened the box.
Inside was a USB drive.
And another letter.
But before I could open it, I heard footsteps behind us.
Slow.
Heavy.
Someone was entering the hall.
Daniel turned around.
I did too.
A man stood at the entrance.
A man I knew.
The father of Emma’s best friend.
But he wasn’t looking at me.
He was looking at the box.
And he said:
“Give me that.”
