The call came just after nine the following morning. An investigator asked whether I could attend another interview, this time with Richard present. He explained that new information had emerged from the examination of the communications surrounding the airport report.
I asked whether I needed to bring anything.
“Your records of the property discussions would be helpful,” he said. “Please bring the copies your attorney has already reviewed. Don't attempt to obtain any new material yourself.”
I gathered the folders and drove to the office with Richard. On the way, I kept thinking about the second phone mentioned in the investigator's message. I had not known Brittany used another device, and I did not want to assume the phone belonged to her until the investigators explained what they had found.
The interview room was smaller than the one at the airport. A digital recorder sat in the center of the table, and a glass of water had been placed in front of each chair. The investigator began by confirming the dates of my original report and the recording of Brittany placing the pouch in my suitcase.
Then he asked whether I had ever seen her using a phone different from the one she usually carried.
“Not that I can recall,” I said. “She sometimes used a tablet, but I couldn't tell you whether she owned a second phone.”
He explained that the communications being examined included a number not associated with Brittany's usual device. The investigators were working to determine who used it and whether it had been involved in arranging the airport report.
“Can you tell me what the messages say?” I asked.
“Some of the content is still being verified. I can tell you that the number appears in communications concerning the planned discovery of the pouch.”
I looked at Richard. He gave a small nod, reminding me to let the investigator finish.
The investigator then asked about Denise and the property inquiry. I confirmed what Richard had already told me: Denise appeared to have received information suggesting I would soon leave the house, but she denied knowing about the pouch. The investigator made a note and said the authorities were continuing to distinguish between people who had participated in the property discussions and those who might have known about the airport plan.
It was the distinction Richard had emphasized from the beginning. A person could repeat a false claim without knowing it was false. Someone could assist with a sale without knowing how the owner had been pressured. The evidence needed to establish what each person understood and what each person did.
After the interview, Richard and I sat in his office while he reviewed the documents I had brought. He paused at the photograph taken from behind the garage.
“This angle still bothers me,” I said. “Whoever took it had been on the property.”
“Yes. We need to establish whether the photograph came from a legitimate inspection, a public listing, or someone who had access without your knowledge.”
“No one had permission to photograph the house for a sale.”
“Then we'll make sure that point is recorded.”
He also showed me a preliminary timeline prepared from the correspondence. It began with the first valuation request, followed by Brittany's attempts to persuade me to sign the power of attorney, the discussions with Denise, and the airport incident. The timeline was not yet complete, but it made the overlap clear.
“Someone may have been pursuing two objectives at once,” Richard said. “One was to create a serious problem for you at the airport. The other was to prepare for a property transaction. The question is whether the same person or people coordinated them.”
I studied the dates. “If the airport incident had succeeded, what would it have accomplished for the property plan?”
“That depends on what they intended the incident to establish. We cannot assume the legal consequences before we know what was reported or what was planned to happen afterward.”
His answer was frustrating, but I understood it. A frightening possibility was not the same as a proven motive.
When I returned home, Ethan was waiting in the driveway. He had called twice, but I had left my phone in the interview room with Richard and hadn't seen the messages until I reached the car.
“Brittany came back,” he said as I stepped out.
“Did she?”
“She wanted to collect some things. We argued.”
I unlocked the door and let him follow me inside. He told me Brittany had accused him of betraying their marriage by speaking to his own attorney and preserving the emails. She insisted that the property inquiry had been harmless and that the airport incident had been blown out of proportion.
“Did she deny placing the pouch in my suitcase?” I asked.
“She said you shouldn't have been watching her. Then she said the pouch wasn't what you think it was.”
“Did she explain what it was?”
“No.”
I put my keys on the table. “That isn't an explanation.”
“I know. I asked her who gave it to her, and she said it didn't matter.”
That answer stayed with me. If the pouch had contained something harmless, there should have been no difficulty explaining its contents. Instead, Brittany continued to focus on my supposed wrongdoing for having recorded her.
“Did she mention the second phone?” I asked.
Ethan's head lifted.
“What second phone?”
“The investigators are examining a number they believe may have been used in the airport arrangements.”
He shook his head. “I've never seen another phone.”
I believed he was telling me what he knew, but I did not treat his lack of knowledge as proof that the device existed or belonged to Brittany. I asked him to record the conversation in his notes and send the information to his attorney.
He stayed for dinner. We ate soup and bread at the kitchen table, speaking about ordinary things for the first time in days. He told me about a problem at work, and I asked whether he had spoken with his supervisor. For a few minutes, he sounded like himself again.
Then his phone vibrated. He glanced at the screen and went still.
“What's wrong?” I asked.
“It's Brittany.”
He read the message, then handed me the phone without a word. The message said that she had found something missing from the house and that she needed him to retrieve it before anyone else saw it.
I read the message twice.
“What does she mean?”
“I don't know. I asked her, but she hasn't answered.”
“Don't go looking for anything on her behalf. Ask her to identify the item and explain why she believes it is missing.”
He typed a reply and waited. Several minutes passed before another message arrived.
The small black phone. You know the one.
Ethan looked at me.
“I don't know what she's talking about,” he said.
“Then tell her that.”
He sent the reply. Brittany did not answer again that evening.
I forwarded a description of the exchange to Richard. He advised us not to search Brittany's belongings or attempt to recover any device ourselves. If a second phone was relevant to the investigation, the authorities needed to establish its ownership and preserve any evidence properly.
The next morning, the investigator called Richard with an update. A second device had been identified in the course of the inquiry, though they were still verifying who had used it. Certain communications appeared to connect the number with the airport report, but they had not yet established the full sequence of events.
Richard relayed the information to me and emphasized that we should not draw conclusions about the device's owner until the investigation confirmed it.
I understood the caution. Still, Brittany's message about the missing black phone had changed the situation. She had referred to a specific device, and she had apparently expected Ethan to know where it was.
He had not.
That afternoon, Ethan came over again. He had brought the copy of the power-of-attorney document he found in his desk. It was not identical to the one Brittany had asked me to sign. The formatting differed, and several passages had been changed.
Richard reviewed the copy and immediately asked where Ethan had obtained it.
“Brittany gave it to me,” Ethan said. “She said it was an earlier draft.”
Richard compared the pages carefully. The document appeared to grant broad authority over financial matters under specified conditions, though its wording differed from the version presented to me. He made copies and arranged for the original to be preserved.
“This needs to be examined alongside the other paperwork,” he said. “We need to establish who drafted each version and why the language changed.”
Ethan stared at the pages. “I thought it was just a form.”
“That's why independent review matters,” Richard replied. “A familiar title doesn't tell you what a document actually permits.”
When we returned to my house, Ethan stood beside the kitchen counter and looked toward the hallway leading to the bedrooms.
“If there really was another phone,” he said, “and if she used it to arrange what happened at the airport, then she planned this.”
“Those are two separate questions,” I reminded him. “We need the evidence to connect them.”
He nodded, but his face had hardened. For the first time, he was no longer searching for an innocent explanation before examining the facts.
Later that evening, Richard sent me a brief message confirming that the authorities had received the second version of the power-of-attorney document. He also told me that the investigation into the property correspondence was expanding to include the identity of the person who had supplied the house photographs.
I put the phone down and walked to the porch. The lake was calm, and the trees along the shoreline had begun to lose their leaves. I thought about how much had changed in less than a week: a suitcase, a black pouch, an unsigned document, a property inquiry, and now a second phone that someone appeared anxious to find.
The authorities had not yet told me who had coordinated the plan or what the complete motive was. But the missing link was no longer an abstract possibility. It was a device, a set of communications, and a person who seemed to know that it mattered.
I stood there until the porch light came on automatically.
Tomorrow, I would give the investigators everything Richard had preserved. I would not search for the phone, confront Brittany, or attempt to solve the case myself. I had spent enough years watching people destroy evidence because they were desperate to get ahead of the truth.
This time, I intended to let the truth catch up with the person who had tried to hide it.
Click here to continue reading: PART 9: The Black Phone Was Finally Traced to Someone Outside Our Family, and His Messages Revealed What Brittany Expected to Happen at Six
At 12:17 A.M., I Saw My Daughter-in-Law Plant Something in My Suitcase—and Realized My Flight Was Only Part of Her Plan
Part 8 of 12
