The other was a man holding a folder.
“Mrs. Rhodes?”
“Yes?”
“I’m Detective Miller.”
My heart began pounding.
He looked at the earrings in my hand.
“Are these the earrings you found yesterday?”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
“Can we come inside?”
I stepped aside.
The officers entered.
Rick remained near the hallway.
I looked at Detective Miller.
“Did you find Hannah?”
He didn’t answer.
My heart sank.
“Please.”
His eyes moved toward Rick.
Then back to me.
“Mrs. Rhodes, we need to talk about your husband.”
I turned.
Rick’s face had gone pale.
“What about him?”
Detective Miller took a breath.
“We ran the earrings through evidence records.”
My heart stopped.
“What does that mean?”
“The earrings were reported missing ten years ago.”
I stared at him.
“I know. They belonged to Hannah.”
“No,” he said quietly.
“You don’t understand.”
He opened the folder.
“These exact earrings were found during the original investigation.”
I frowned.
“Where?”
He looked at Rick.
“Inside your husband’s vehicle.”
The room seemed to tilt.
I looked at Rick.
He didn’t move.
“That’s impossible.”
Detective Miller continued.
“At the time, your husband told investigators that the earrings had fallen out of Hannah’s backpack several days before she disappeared.”
I turned toward Rick.
“You told me you never found them.”
He said nothing.
I felt something inside me breaking.
“Rick?”
Still nothing.
Detective Miller looked at me.
“We reopened the case after the flea-market discovery.”
“Why?”
“Because the earrings weren’t simply missing.”
He paused.
“They were entered into evidence.”
My breathing became shallow.
“Then why were they at a flea market?”
“We don’t know yet.”
I looked at Rick.
His eyes were fixed on the floor.
For the first time in ten years, I realized that perhaps the person I’d trusted most in the world had been lying to me.
But the detective wasn’t finished.
He closed the folder.
Then he said the sentence that nearly knocked me to the floor.
“Mrs. Rhodes, your husband didn’t just know about your daughter’s disappearance—he was the last person who saw Hannah alive.”
I couldn’t speak.
Rick finally looked at me.
His face was completely empty.
“Laura…”
I raised my hand.
“Don’t.”
The detective stepped closer.
“We need to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Did Rick ever tell you that Hannah was supposed to meet someone that afternoon?”
I shook my head.
