Chapter 5 - Locker 214
Locker 214 belonged to the community recreation center.
Old employee lockers in basement.
Unused.
Police obtained access.
Inside:
A pink backpack.
Not Emma’s current one.
Her old kindergarten backpack.
Sarah recognized immediately.
“How did this get here?”
Inside:
Crayons.
A stuffed rabbit.
Three juice-box straws.
And a cheap children’s voice recorder.
Sarah had bought it for Emma two years earlier.
Emma loved recording pretend radio shows.
Sarah thought recorder was lost.
Battery dead.
Memory intact.
Most files were Emma singing.
Talking to dolls.
Then one recording six days before death.
Emma whispering:
“Mom, if I tell, you can’t be mad.”
Sarah covered mouth.
Recording continued.
“Tyler says I’m a baby.”
Then Jason’s voice farther away:
“Who are you talking to?”
Recording abruptly stopped.
Next file.
Emma crying.
“They made me go by the water.”
Sarah stopped playback.
Could not breathe.
Rachel held her.
Later they continued.
“They said they’re gonna teach me swimming.”
Then:
“I don’t want to.”
No clear threat.
But pattern.
Then final recording.
Date of death.
11:08 a.m.
Four hours before dock.
Emma:
“Megan said I should record if they bother me.”
Megan.
She had helped Emma.
Then rustling.
Tyler:
“You brought that stupid thing again?”
Emma:
“No.”
Jason:
“Give it.”
File ends.
So Tyler may have taken recorder.
How did it end in locker 214?
Someone put it there afterward.
Who had access?
Recreation employees.
Volunteer parents.
Tyler’s mother Allison.
Marcus Reed.
Megan.
Then fingerprints on recorder.
Emma.
Tyler.
Megan.
No Jason due wiped surface.
Then Allison admitted she had found recorder in Tyler’s hoodie after death.
Sarah stared.
“You hid it?”
“I was going to give police.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I panicked.”
Again.
Parents panicking everywhere.
Where did she put it?
Locker 214.
Why?
Allison volunteered at recreation center and knew unused lockers.
She wanted time to talk to lawyer.
Then recorder disappeared before she could retrieve.
Who took it and placed key in envelope?
Someone knew.
Allison claimed only husband Andrew knew.
Andrew denied.
Megan overheard parents arguing.
Could be Megan.
But she denied.
Then Sarah asked Allison:
“Why didn’t you tell police Tyler had been threatening Emma?”
Allison cried.
“I didn't know how bad it was.”
“Your daughter did.”
“I thought sibling exaggeration.”
Then prosecutor uncovered HR messages.
Allison had received complaint from Sarah’s hospital supervisor because Tyler threatened Emma using her job.
Megan told mother.
Allison replied:
He’s just mouthing off. Don’t make this bigger.
She knew.
Not everything.
Enough.
Then Sarah wondered:
Was envelope evidence of cover-up by Tyler’s family?
Maybe.
But brass key had tiny engraved initials:
May you like
J.R.
Jason Reed.
