Chapter 3 - The Envelope Above the Refrigerator
Rachel did not speak until they were home.
Their apartment occupied the second floor of an aging brick building six blocks from Westbridge High.
The kitchen was barely large enough for two chairs and a table.
Emily dropped her backpack beside the door.
“Cabinet.”
Rachel removed her coat.
“Emily—”
“What did Sofia give you?”
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
Rachel winced.
“That isn’t fair.”
“It’s completely fair.”
Rachel looked exhausted.
She always looked exhausted after double shifts, but this was different.
Defeated.
Emily pointed toward the cupboard above the refrigerator.
“Is it there?”
Rachel didn’t stop her.
Emily dragged over a chair.
Behind a box of Christmas decorations was a thick yellow envelope.
On the front:
RACHEL CARTER — ONLY IF SOMETHING HAPPENS
Emily climbed down.
Her mother sat.
“Sofia showed up after ten at night,” Rachel said. “She was terrified.”
“Why come to you?”
“Because we worked together years ago.”
Emily hadn’t known that either.
“At Cedar Grove?”
“No. Cole Properties.”
Emily froze.
“My mother worked for Brittany’s father?”
“For six months. Before your dad died.”
Emily stared at her.
“You never told me.”
“It wasn’t important.”
“It seems pretty important now.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“Sofia stayed. She became a payroll clerk for the Cole Family Foundation.”
“And?”
“She said Ava found documents on Sofia’s home laptop.”
“What documents?”
Rachel nodded toward the envelope.
Emily opened it.
Photographs.
Spreadsheets.
Copies of checks.
Emails.
Most meant nothing to her.
Then she recognized a name.
Dean Harlow.
A payment for $12,500 from something called the Cole Youth Advancement Foundation.
Memo:
Community retention consulting.
Another payment.
$8,000.
Another.
$10,500.
Same recipient.
Emily looked up.
“Why is our assistant principal being paid by Brittany’s father?”
Rachel shook her head.
“Sofia didn’t know.”
“What else?”
“She said Ava believed the money was connected to complaints at school.”
Emily searched the papers.
A list of student initials.
Dates.
Amounts.
Some marked RESOLVED.
One marked:
A.M. — PENDING
Ava Morales.
“What is this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you take this to police?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Sofia begged me not to.”
Emily slammed the papers down.
“A girl disappeared.”
“Sofia said Ava was safe.”
Emily stopped.
“What?”
“She said Ava was somewhere safe.”
“Where?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
“Then Ava isn’t missing?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily stared at her mother.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know.”
Rachel’s voice broke.
“She said Victor Cole had people watching their apartment. She believed someone had followed Ava after school.”
“Who?”
“She didn’t know.”
Emily paced.
“Why give you this?”
“Because she thought I was outside Cole’s reach.”
Emily laughed sharply.
“We live six blocks from his daughter.”
“That isn’t what she meant.”
Rachel rubbed her forehead.
“She was scared the documents would disappear.”
“So you hid them above our refrigerator.”
“Yes.”
“For three weeks.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“No.”
Emily turned away.
She hated secrets.
Secrets were just lies with better public relations.
Her phone rang.
Logan.
She answered.
“I found something.”
“What?”
“Ava’s locker.”
“What about it?”
“It was never emptied.”
Emily looked toward the envelope.
“When?”
“I’m at school now. Newspaper meeting.”
“You opened it?”
“No. But the janitor showed me something.”
“What?”
“Her emergency inhaler is still inside.”
Emily remembered Ava using it in gym class.
“She wouldn’t leave that.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Rachel stood.
“You’re not going back tonight.”
Emily ignored her.
“What else?”
Logan lowered his voice.
“A sketchbook.”
“Did you touch it?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Why?”
“Because this is bigger than bullying.”
She told him about the envelope.
For once, Logan had no sarcastic answer.
“I’m calling Investigator Ellis.”
“Already planning to.”
Rachel reached for the papers.
“Wait.”
Emily looked at her.
“What?”
Rachel removed one photograph from the pile.
On the back was handwriting Emily had overlooked.
Sofia’s.
Ava said Brittany told her, “My dad can erase you from this school.” I thought she was exaggerating. Then Harlow sent the withdrawal form.
Emily read it twice.
Logan heard through the phone.
“Emily?”
“Yeah?”
“There’s something written inside Ava’s sketchbook.”
“You said you didn’t open it.”
“I didn’t. It’s written on the cover.”
“What?”
Logan’s voice became quiet.
“‘If they say I transferred, they’re lying.’”
Rachel put a hand over her mouth.
Emily’s phone buzzed again.
Another unknown message.
This time it contained a photograph.
Ava Morales standing beside a city bus terminal.
Timestamp:
October 11 — 6:42 p.m.
The last Friday she attended Westbridge.
Behind Ava stood Brittany Cole.
May you like
And ten feet behind Brittany was Victor Cole.
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