Chapter 14 - CHILDREN RECOVER
Ross Keene's bargaining position collapsed.
Faced with the new evidence, he offered prosecutors a hidden storage drive.
It contained emails, billing notes, and office recordings Evelyn believed were gone.
One video showed Evelyn sitting across from Keene after Anna's death.
"Daniel will never surrender Lily," Keene said.
"He doesn't have to," Evelyn replied.
"We create enough concern, the court does it for him."
"And Michael?"
"Michael does what shame tells him."
Keene shifted.
"What if Lily gets hurt?"
Evelyn smiled.
"Children recover."
I had to look away.
A second recording was made six weeks before the luncheon.
Evelyn placed a folder on Keene's desk.
"At the event, Daniel will appear negligent in front of donors, doctors, and two judges."
"And Lily?"
"She only needs to be frightened."
Collins stopped the video.
The room was silent.
Then she showed me a payment list.
One name belonged to Lily's school nurse, Karen Dale.
For three years I had trusted Karen to keep my daughter safe.
When questioned, Karen admitted Evelyn paid her for copies of medical records, incident reports, and every late pickup.
"She said she was preparing a custody case," Karen cried.
"Did she ever ask for Lily's emergency medication?" Collins asked.
Karen went still.
"Once."
Two months earlier, an injector vanished from the locked school cabinet.
It returned the next morning.
Serial records showed something worse.
The injector recovered from Evelyn's car was that school pen.
Not one of mine.
Which meant the real injector removed from my jacket was still missing.
Then the lab called.
Peanut-oil residue had been found inside my medication pouch.
And the usable fingerprint inside the zipper did not belong to Evelyn or Michael.
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It belonged to Ross Keene.
The lawyer who claimed he had never attended the luncheon.
