Chapter 10 - THE GRAVE BEYOND ALPINE
Brandon denied knowing Mason Sloan.
Then Detective Vega showed him a photograph recovered from Rebecca’s phone.
Mason stood beside Brandon in a warehouse filled with sealed medical supply boxes. A date stamp placed them together seven months earlier.
Brandon changed his answer.
“He worked temporary shifts.”
“You just said you didn’t know him,” Vega replied.
“I didn’t recognize the name.”
“You approved his building access.”
“My assistant handles those requests.”
“Your signature is on the form.”
“Electronic signature.”
Each answer was technically possible.
Together, they formed a wall of practiced evasion.
Police impounded the missing company vehicle after finding it parked behind an abandoned gas station. Blood in the cargo area matched Caleb’s preliminary type, though laboratory confirmation would take time.
More disturbing was the dried soil packed into the wheel wells.
It contained pale mineral deposits consistent with the desert east of Alpine.
Search teams followed tire impressions into a remote canyon.
I stayed at the hospital, trapped between updates.
Nancy remained missing.
Rebecca’s phone stopped responding.
Claire had not reached Detective Vega, and calls to Room 814 went unanswered.
The flash drive she promised never arrived.
By late afternoon, a local news station broadcast the hospital abduction footage. They blurred Nancy’s face but showed the woman in the burgundy dress.
My name spread online within minutes.
MOTHER SOUGHT AFTER POISONING AND ABDUCTION.
The police had not released that description, but anonymous “family sources” claimed I suffered from severe jealousy and had fabricated evidence against my husband.
Evelyn’s counterattack had begun.
Dana received instructions from her department to treat me as a flight risk. Two officers remained near me, though Vega insisted I was not under arrest.
Brandon’s attorney gave a statement outside the hospital.
“My client is cooperating fully while enduring an unimaginable betrayal.”
I watched it on a muted television.
Brandon stood beside Leonard with tears in his eyes.
He had always known how to cry when an audience required it.
At sunset, Detective Vega returned.
Searchers had found disturbed ground in the canyon.
A cadaver dog alerted.
The grave contained human remains wrapped in a plastic sheet bearing the logo of Brandon’s company.
Rebecca’s son’s identity had not yet been confirmed.
But a silver bracelet lay beside the body.
I had seen it in the photograph of Mason tied to the chair.
Rebecca had been manipulated with an old image of a child already dead.
“Did Brandon kill him?” I asked.
“We don’t know.”
“What happened in that warehouse?”
Vega’s expression tightened. “Mason accessed shipping records. Several boxes labeled as pediatric monitoring equipment contained imported magnets.”
The same magnets used on Nancy.
Brandon’s company had been smuggling restricted neodymium magnets inside medical shipments, then selling them through shell distributors. Mason discovered it.
The poisoning was not only about Nancy’s trust.
It was also a way to place dangerous evidence inside my home and blame me if the smuggling operation was exposed.
Vega finally obtained a warrant for Brandon’s phone.
The device had been remotely wiped nine minutes earlier.
The deletion request came from my Apple account.
Someone had stolen my credentials.
The warrant team also searched my car.
In the trunk, beneath the spare tire, they found three sealed packages of magnets, Caleb’s bloodstained baseball cap, and a handwritten map leading to the canyon grave.
I stared at the evidence arranged on the pavement.
Every item pointed to me.
Detective Vega’s face became unreadable.
“Samantha,” she said carefully, “I need you to place your hands where I can see them.”
Before she could continue, my phone rang from an unknown number.
Nancy’s weak voice whispered, “Mommy, Grandma says the police found your secret.”
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Then someone pulled the phone away, and I heard Claire Morgan scream.
📖 Find out where Evelyn was holding Nancy and Claire—and why Detective Vega had to choose between arresting me and following the call in CHAPTER 11. 👇
