Chapter 5 - A Mother's Worst Discovery
I did not sleep that night.
Every time I closed my eyes, I heard Michael's voice.
If she's breathing, we can't risk it.
I kept trying to connect those words to the child I had raised.
Michael had once been a little boy who brought injured birds into our kitchen because he couldn't bear to watch them suffer.
He had cried for three days when our family dog died.
He had held my hand at Robert's funeral.
How had that boy become the man who walked away from his injured mother and son?
Or had there always been something inside him I refused to see?
The following morning, Detective Torres returned.
She brought an investigator named Samuel Price.
He was quiet, with gray hair and the kind of patience that made people underestimate him.
Rebecca placed a photograph on the table.
It showed the hiking trail.
A section of the path had collapsed.
I recognized the location immediately.
“That's where I fell.”
Samuel pointed to several disturbed stones.
“We found evidence that rocks had been moved around the weakened edge.”
“By Michael?”
“We don't know.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
“We also located your phone.”
I looked up.
“Where?”
“In a trash container near the trailhead parking lot.”
My stomach turned.
“It was in my jacket when I fell.”
“That's what we need to establish.”
Samuel placed another photograph beside the first.
It showed a black backpack.
“Do you recognize this?”
“Yes. Michael was carrying it.”
“Inside the backpack, investigators found a small folding shovel and a pair of heavy work gloves.”
My heart pounded.
“Does that mean he caused the collapse?”
“Not necessarily,” Rebecca said. “But it's something we're investigating.”
Then Samuel asked a question that made me sit upright.
“Mrs. Collins, do you remember anything unusual before the fall?”
I closed my eyes.
I could see Emily ahead of me.
Her red jacket.
Aiden singing.
Michael walking behind us.
Then something else.
A sudden scraping sound.
Loose gravel moving.
I remembered turning slightly.
And Michael saying, “Careful, Mom.”
Not a warning shouted in surprise.
A quiet statement.
Almost as though he already knew what was about to happen.
I opened my eyes.
“He was behind me.”
Rebecca waited.
“Michael. He was directly behind me when the ground collapsed.”
“Did he touch you?”
“I don't remember.”
Samuel exchanged a glance with Rebecca.
Then Rebecca said, “There's another development.”
She slid a printed photograph toward me.
It showed Michael and Emily outside the hospital the previous evening.
They were standing beside a man I didn't recognize.
He wore a dark business suit.
“Who's that?” I asked.
“His name is Nathaniel Graves. He's connected to several financial transactions involving your trust.”
I frowned.
“What kind of transactions?”
Rebecca's expression hardened.
“The kind that may explain why your son needed you declared incapable of managing your own money.”
May you like
Then she added something worse.
“Mrs. Collins, we believe the transfer may have been only the beginning.”
