Chapter 7 - I ALERTED THE PERSON WHO MOVED HERDetective Ortiz told me not to contact Richard.
Not Margaret.
Not Richard’s employees.
Not anyone who might be involved.
I obeyed for almost fourteen hours.
Then I broke.
Emily’s phone remained missing.
At 2:11 a.m., unable to sleep, I opened our old shared family location app.
Emily’s profile was offline.
I texted anyway.
Em, we found the room. Noah gave us the key. We know you’re alive. Please tell me where you are.
I stared.
No delivery confirmation.
Then:
Delivered.
My entire body went cold.
Her phone had turned on.
I called Ortiz.
She answered on the second ring.
“You texted?”
“Yes.”
A pause containing several forms of disappointment.
“We told you not to.”
“I know.”
“Screenshot everything and stop.”
“Can you locate it?”
“We’re working on legal process.”
The phone went dark four minutes later.
No response.
Later, digital records showed it had connected briefly to a cell sector near one of Hale Renovation’s storage properties outside Reading.
By the time police obtained the necessary location detail and search authority, the site had been cleared.
Fresh tire tracks.
A cot.
Food wrappers.
Blood.
No Emily.
Ortiz never said my text caused the move.
She said:
“We can’t prove whoever had the phone saw it before relocating.”
But timing was terrible.
I carried that.
If I had waited, maybe surveillance would have found her.
Maybe not.
May you like
The mistake was real even if its exact consequence could not be proved.
I stopped freelancing after that.
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