Chapter 5 - The Blue Drive
The drive opened, revealing a single folder titled: INCIDENTS.
My hands shook as I clicked the folder open. Inside were dozen of audio files, time-stamped photos, and saved text message threads spanning the last four months.
Sarah hadn't been completely blind. She had been terrified.
I opened the first audio file.
The recording opened with the loud, muffled sound of yelling in a small room.
“You think you can just walk out on me, Sarah?!” Caleb’s booming voice echoed through my laptop speakers. “Look at what you made me do to the wall! You owe me four hundred dollars for that drywall!”
“Caleb, please, Lily is sleeping!” Sarah’s weeping voice replied. “Put the belt down! Please!”
“Shut her up or I will!”
I snapped the laptop shut, my heart pounding violently, tears of pure fury stinging my eyes.
Sarah had been secretly documenting Caleb’s abuse, likely planning to build a case to leave him—or perhaps using the recordings as leverage to keep him from taking her money. But fear had paralyzed her. She had stayed, hiding the evidence on a drive in her child’s backpack, hoping the storm would pass.
And then the glass bowl had flown.
My phone rang on the kitchen island. It was an unknown number.
I hesitated, then answered. “Hello?”
“You have something that belongs to me, Laura.”
It was Caleb’s voice. Cold, smooth, and chillingly confident.
I froze, my hand clutching the edge of the granite counter. “How did you get this number?”
“Sarah left her phone in my truck,” Caleb sneered. “I saw the cloud sync log. I know Lily took that blue flash drive in her bag. Sarah’s an idiot for keeping those files, but you’re an even bigger idiot if you think you’re going to hand them over to the DA.”
“I’m handing them to the police tomorrow morning, Caleb,” I said, trying to keep my voice from trembling. “It’s over. You’re going to prison.”
Caleb laughed—a low, terrifying chuckle that sent cold ice down my spine.
“Check your front porch, Laura.”
I dropped the phone, grabbed a heavy brass candlestick from the dining table, and rushed to the front window.
May you like
Outside, sitting in the center of my front porch, was a single, freshly smashed glass bowl. The sharp, jagged shards glittered under the streetlamp light.
And parked at the end of my driveway, idling silently in the dark, was a dark blue pickup truck.
