Chapter 21 - LAURA’S LAST AUDIOInside the blue folder was a small flash drive.
Password protected.
Hannah’s cyber team opened it.
One audio file.
Laura.
Recorded eleven days before her death.
Her voice filled the evidence room.
“If something happens to me, I need whoever hears this to understand that Robert does not know.”
I stopped breathing.
“I tried to tell him.”
“He is not part of this.”
“He trusts county systems too much because he helped build some of them.”
That hurt because it was exactly true.
“Diana Harrington is not simply overbilling.”
“She and Malcolm are creating medical escalations to extend placements.”
“I cannot yet prove how many.”
“I believe children have been deliberately deprived of medication.”
Silence.
Then:
“I am scared.”
I had almost never heard Laura say those words.
“I am scared they know I copied the records.”
“If I tell Robert now, he will go directly at them.”
“I need the evidence outside his chain of command first.”
Then the final sentence.
“Robert, if you hear this, do not make anger the only thing you do with grief.”
May you like
I closed my eyes.
Eighteen months after her death, Laura was still correcting me.
Related Stories
