Chapter 4 - WHAT ADRIAN TOLD OUR DAUGHTER
I stopped breathing.
“What do you mean he gave it to you?”
Salomé frowned, trying to remember.
“He came into my room when you were downstairs.”
“When?”
“The night before he went to heaven.”
Her voice became smaller.
“He said we were playing a secret game.”
My hands began trembling.
Adrian had never mentioned any secret game.
“What did he ask you to do?”
“He showed me the red button.”
Méndez looked toward the phone.
“What red button?”
“The one that makes your voice stay inside.”
Recording.
Adrian had taught our daughter how to record audio.
“Did Daddy record something?”
Salomé nodded.
“He said if Grandma came over, I should stay upstairs.”
My skin went cold.
“Grandma came over that night?”
“Yes.”
That fact had never appeared at trial.
Evelyn testified that she had been home alone the entire evening before Adrian died.
“Did you see her?”
“From the stairs.”
“What happened?”
“Daddy and Grandma were yelling.”
Méndez pulled a chair closer but did not interrupt.
“What were they yelling about?”
“I don’t know.”
Salomé squeezed my fingers.
“Grandma said Daddy was going to ruin everything.”
My pulse hammered.
Then Salomé said something else.
“Daddy came upstairs after she left.”
“What did he do?”
“He took the phone and kissed me.”
Her eyes filled.
“He said, ‘You did perfect, bug.’”
I closed my eyes.
Adrian had recorded his confrontation with Evelyn.
And he had used Salomé because he believed Evelyn wouldn’t notice a child’s phone recording from upstairs.
Except it wasn’t a child’s phone.
It was his.
“What happened to it afterward?”
“I don’t know.”
That made sense.
After Adrian died, Evelyn had spent hours inside our house.
At the time, detectives said she was helping with Salomé.
She had access to bedrooms.
Closets.
Drawers.
And apparently Adrian’s phone.
Méndez called the facility investigator.
The phone was placed into an evidence bag.
I watched it disappear from the table.
For eleven months, I had begged people to believe there was missing evidence.
Now it had arrived inside my daughter’s backpack.
But Méndez wasn’t celebrating.
She looked worried.
“Ramira, even if recordings exist, we don’t know what they contain.”
“I understand.”
“And chain of custody will be challenged.”
“I understand.”
“But if this device is genuinely Adrian’s missing phone…”
She didn’t finish.
She didn’t have to.
My conviction had been built partly around the claim that I had made that phone disappear.
If Evelyn had possessed it instead, the entire story changed.
Then the door opened.
Grant stood there.
He looked at the evidence bag.
And asked:
May you like
“Did you unlock it?”
Nobody had told him the phone was locked.
