part 3
PART 3
Richard left the memorial before the final prayer.
Not politely.
Not quietly.
He walked down the aisle with his phone gripped in one hand and Natalie’s framed portrait in the other.
Linda hurried after him.
Mark followed faster.
The mourners whispered behind them as the church doors opened into the Los Angeles sunlight.
“Richard, stop,” Linda said.
He turned on the steps.
“Say her name.”
Linda froze.
“What?”
“My daughter.”
“Say her name without lying.”
Her face collapsed for one second before she rebuilt it.
“You are in shock.”
Mark reached for the phone again.
Richard shoved his hand away.
Mark’s expression darkened.
Then softened too quickly.
“Dad, this is exactly how scams work.”
“They target grieving parents.”
Richard looked at him.
“You called me Dad twice in there.”
Mark blinked.
“You always call me Richard.”
Mark said nothing.
Richard’s driver opened the car door.
Richard got in alone and locked it before Linda could slide beside him.
“Where are you going?” she shouted through the glass.
Richard did not answer.
He called the only person he should have called two years ago.
Detective Mara Quinn.
Retired LAPD.
Old friend.
The woman who had once told him the crash file felt too clean.
He had not listened.
She answered on the second ring.
“Richard?”
He stared at the church steps where Linda and Mark stood like suspects in mourning clothes.
“I got a text from Natalie.”
Mara did not laugh.
She did not comfort him.
She only said, “Send it to me.”
That was when Richard knew he was not crazy.
Twenty minutes later, he arrived at Mara’s office in Pasadena.
She took the phone with gloves.
Read the messages.
Then read them again.
Her face tightened.
“This number is masked.”
“Can you trace it?”
“Maybe.”
Richard handed her the portrait.
“I need to know if I buried my daughter.”
Mara looked at him carefully.
“You buried someone.”
That sentence nearly broke him.
But before he could answer, his phone buzzed again.
A new message.
Dad, they told me you gave me away.
They said you chose Linda.
I didn’t believe them until you stopped looking.
Richard made a sound like grief being ripped open.
Mara looked at the screen.
Then at him.
“We start with the crash.”
Richard nodded.
“No.”
May you like
“We start with Linda.”
Read the full story 👉 Natalie’s new message claimed she was told Richard gave her away, turning his grief into a hunt for who stole his daughter.
