Chapter 18 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW ME BEST
Rachel did not run far.
She came to me.
At 1:08 a.m., my apartment buzzer rang.
I looked at the security screen.
Her face appeared.
No makeup.
Hair wet.
Terrified.
I called Detective Morris before opening the door.
Rachel stepped inside with her hands visible.
“I’m not here to hurt you.”
“You’ve had fifteen years.”
She flinched.
“I deserve that.”
“Yes.”
She placed a flash drive on the floor.
“Peter kept backups.”
“Why bring them to me?”
“Because the deal doesn’t protect you.”
“What?”
She looked toward the hallway.
“Richard paid someone inside the prosecutor’s office.”
My blood chilled.
“He’s trying to destroy evidence before trial.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
She started crying.
Not dramatically.
Just exhausted tears.
“I tried to be what my dad wanted.”
I said nothing.
“And then you became my best friend.”
“That did not stop you.”
“No.”
“At my wedding you helped a kidnapper escape.”
“My father said he’d kill my mother.”
I stared at her.
“Your mother is alive?”
Rachel nodded.
“He’s kept her hidden for years.”
Another family prison.
Another woman used as leverage.
Police arrived.
Rachel surrendered.
Before they took her, she looked at me.
“Sarah?”
I waited.
“The day you tried on your wedding dress…”
Her voice broke.
“I really did cry because you looked beautiful.”
I hated that this mattered.
It did.
The flash drive contained payment records.
One name appeared seventeen times.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Heller.
The prosecutor assigned to Richard’s case.
By sunrise, Heller was under investigation.
But before officers could arrest him, he vanished.
May you like
And he took one evidence box with him.
The box containing the original recording of Richard’s confession.
