Chapter 13 - The Hidden Flash Drive
Bradley Vance called me at seven the next morning and asked for my brother’s stuffed rabbit.
Not Grandpa’s letter.
Not the photograph.
A rabbit.
“I understand Daniel Sterling has resurfaced,” he said smoothly.
“There are delicate matters requiring professional handling.”
“Then speak to the detective.”
“Maya, an unstable man can tell a convincing story.”
I switched on the recording function and told him I was recording.
His voice changed.
“I’m calling about property belonging to your father’s company. A promotional toy. It may have been retained among Toby’s childhood possessions.”
Across the table, Daniel went still.
“The rabbit?” I asked.
“Gray. One blue ear.”
I remembered it.
Toby had slept with it until he was nine.
My father once tried to throw it away because boys his age should not need toys.
Grandma had rescued it from the rubbish.
“What could a construction company want with a stuffed rabbit?”
“Return it to my office. Today.”
He disconnected.
Daniel gripped the edge of the table.
“Lena made that rabbit.”
Grandma fetched it from a box in her linen cupboard.
It was small and flattened from years of being hugged.
One ear was blue because Lena had run out of gray fabric.
Daniel held it carefully.
“She said she’d hide a copy somewhere Richard would never think to look. I thought she meant the records she gave our lawyer.”
Grandma examined the uneven stitching beneath its arm.
“This was repaired.”
We called the detective before opening it.
An investigator photographed the seams, then removed a tiny storage device wrapped in plastic.
For twelve years, Toby had carried evidence against the people controlling his life.
The only thing he had been allowed to keep from his mother might finally bring her back.
The device went into an evidence bag.
Nobody plugged it into Grandma’s computer.
Nobody declared victory.
We waited while specialists examined it, and while Patricia contacted a lawyer experienced in wrongful convictions.
Vance’s call gave investigators another reason to look closely at his involvement.
My mother returned that afternoon, accompanied by Patricia.
She had brought every letter Richard had told her to discard.
“I kept them,” she said.
“Why didn’t you answer?” Daniel asked.
She stared at the bundle.
“Because he said Lena would take Toby away.”
“She was his mother.”
“I knew.”
Those two words emptied the room.
Toby stood in the doorway.
My mother faced him.
“I wanted a son. Richard said we were giving you a better life. After a while, I stopped asking questions because I was afraid of the answers.”
He looked at the letters.
“You let me think nobody else wanted me.”
“Yes.”
“Then when Dad hurt me, you still wanted me to stay.”
“Yes.”
She was crying, but she did not ask him to comfort her.
Toby took the bundle from her hands.
“I want to read these with Maya.”
My mother nodded.
He walked past her without touching her.
May you like
After he went upstairs, she sat beside Patricia.
“Tell the investigators I’m ready to give a full statement.”
