Chapter 3 - The Second Phone
Sarah froze with the purse against her chest.
The phone rang again.
Not her regular ringtone.
A short electronic pulse.
Marcus looked toward her.
That was the moment I knew the phone belonged to their secret life together.
Detective Mercer raised a hand.
“Sarah, don’t remove anything.”
“It’s my purse.”
“Yes.”
“You need a warrant.”
“For the purse, yes, depending on circumstances. Which is why I’m asking you not to destroy or conceal possible evidence while we determine next steps.”
Sarah clutched it tighter.
David remained seated with the children.
He appeared almost unnaturally calm.
“You knew about the phone?” I asked him.
“I suspected.”
“How?”
“Because one number kept contacting the title company using Sarah’s name.”
Sarah looked at him sharply.
David continued.
“The title company’s compliance officer saved the call logs.”
Mercer nodded.
“They voluntarily preserved records after the signature discrepancy was reported.”
Marcus laughed.
“You’re building a crime out of paperwork.”
David stared at him.
“You forged my name.”
“You can prove that?”
“I don’t need to.”
Marcus smiled.
David finished.
“The handwriting examiner can.”
The smile disappeared.
Eli began fussing.
Maya instantly reached for him.
“I can hold him.”
David looked at her.
“You don’t have to.”
“He cries if I don’t.”
“Then I’ll learn what he needs.”
Maya frowned.
“Mom says you don’t know babies anymore.”
Sarah whispered, “Maya.”
David’s face changed.
Not anger.
Hurt.
Maya immediately looked frightened.
“I’m sorry.”
David pulled her closer.
“You never apologize for telling me something true.”
Marcus rolled his eyes.
David looked at him.
“You have somewhere else you’d rather be?”
“Yeah. Away from this circus.”
Mercer stepped between him and the door.
“I’d prefer everyone remain until another unit arrives.”
“You said I wasn’t under arrest.”
“You aren’t.”
“Then move.”
Mercer didn’t.
“Mr. Keller, there is an open identity fraud investigation involving financial records connected to this residence. You’re also standing in a kitchen where a six-year-old appears visibly injured and multiple witnesses say you had your hand raised toward her.”
Marcus’s expression tightened.
“You didn’t witness anything.”
“No,” Mercer replied. “Which is why I’m waiting for patrol officers and child services instead of pretending I did.”
Sarah abruptly started crying.
David looked at her.
“Stop doing that.”
She stared at him.
“What?”
“Crying when you need everyone to stop asking questions.”
Her face hardened immediately.
“That’s cruel.”
“No. Cruel is making Maya stand on that stool.”
“You don’t know what it’s been like!”
David’s voice rose for the first time.
“Then tell me.”
The kitchen went silent.
“You were gone,” Sarah said. “Eleven months. Eleven months of me doing everything.”
“My sister was here.”
Sarah glanced toward me.
I looked down.
David noticed.
“What?”
I swallowed.
“I wasn’t here as much as you think.”
“Why?”
Sarah answered.
“Because I didn’t need a babysitter.”
“That isn’t why,” I said.
My sister looked at me.
“Don’t.”
David turned toward me.
I forced myself to continue.
“Sarah kept asking me not to come over.”
“You were annoying Maya,” Sarah snapped.
“No. Marcus didn’t want me here.”
Marcus laughed.
“I barely spoke to you.”
“You changed the locks.”
David looked at the back door.
Sarah responded quickly.
“The old lock broke.”
“You gave me one key,” I said. “Then three weeks later it stopped working.”
David’s expression became still.
“When?”
“About three months ago.”
He looked at Marcus.
Marcus folded his arms.
“Security upgrade.”
“Whose security?”
“Nobody asked you to disappear.”
David stood.
Maya clung to him.
Captain Reyes stepped forward.
“David.”
David stopped.
He took a breath and sat again.
Marcus smiled.
“You see that? He’s unstable.”
David’s eyes lifted.
“You’ve been waiting to say that.”
Sarah looked away.
David saw.
“So that’s the plan.”
“What plan?” I asked.
He looked at the transfer agreement.
“If I came home angry enough, Marcus wanted witnesses.”
Marcus’s smile vanished.
David nodded toward the second phone.
“I think that’s why someone texted me an address Thursday night.”
Sarah whispered, “What address?”
“Our house.”
My skin prickled.
David continued.
“Unknown number. Message said: ‘Come through the front door if you want to see what your family became.’”
Mercer looked at him.
“You didn’t tell me that part.”
“I told military investigators.”
Captain Reyes nodded.
“We preserved the message.”
David looked at Marcus.
“I assumed somebody wanted me charging in.”
Marcus said nothing.
“Maybe throwing a punch.”
Nothing.
“Maybe giving Sarah something useful in family court.”
Sarah’s eyes widened.
“That’s insane.”
David studied her.
“Is it?”
Mercer’s radio crackled.
Child services had arrived.
Outside, tires rolled across the gravel driveway.
Sarah looked toward the window.
Then the second phone stopped ringing.
A moment later, it chimed.
A message preview illuminated the screen through the open top of the purse.
I was standing closest.
I saw the words.
So did David.
M: IF HE’S REALLY BACK, DESTROY THE BLUE FILE.
Sarah shoved the phone deeper into the purse.
David slowly stood.
Marcus was staring at the floor.
But he wasn’t holding a phone.
May you like
Which meant whoever had sent that message wasn’t Marcus.
And suddenly there were more people inside this conspiracy than any of us had imagined.
