Chapter 2 - Behind the Yellow Moon
The visitation room was cleared in less than two minutes.
Everyone except Chloe.
Elena hated that immediately.
“What are you doing?”
Warden Mitchell stood by the door.
“We need a clean statement from her.”
“She’s eight.”
“And right now she may be the only person who knows where potentially exculpatory evidence is located.”
“She already told you.”
“I need it documented.”
Elena looked at the social worker.
“Stay with her.”
“I will.”
Chloe reached for Elena.
“Mommy?”
Elena wanted to grab her daughter and never let go.
Instead, the chain stopped her after six inches.
“I’m right here.”
“Are they taking me away?”
“No.”
The lie came automatically.
Sooner or later, they would.
Everything in Elena’s life ended with somebody taking Chloe away.
She forced herself to smile.
“They’re just going to ask you a few questions.”
The prison legal coordinator entered with a phone.
“Your attorney.”
Elena grabbed it.
“Leah?”
“Elena?”
Leah Mercer sounded breathless.
“What happened?”
“They found the phone.”
“What?”
“No. Not yet. Chloe knows where it is.”
“Start at the beginning.”
“We don’t have time for the beginning.”
“Elena.”
Something in Leah’s tone cut through her panic.
“Give me facts.”
So Elena did.
The blue prepaid phone.
Nathan’s call to Ruth.
The yellow moon in Chloe’s bedroom.
Detective Rusk.
The raven tattoo.
The warning.
Leah did not interrupt once.
When Elena finished, the line remained silent for several seconds.
Then Leah said, “Is Chloe certain?”
“She’s eight, Leah.”
“I know.”
“She remembered the moon. She remembered Rusk’s tattoo. She remembered him asking Ruth about the phone.”
“Okay.”
Elena hated how calm Leah suddenly sounded.
“What does okay mean?”
“It means I’m moving.”
“Where?”
“Your old house.”
Elena straightened.
“Ruth still owned it when she died.”
“I’m checking probate now.”
“Her executor should be Peter.”
Nathan’s older brother.
The name tasted bitter.
Peter had sat directly behind prosecutors during Elena’s trial.
He had watched the jury convict her.
After sentencing, he told a reporter he hoped Elena spent every remaining night remembering what she had done.
He had never brought Chloe to visit.
Not once.
Leah asked, “Will he cooperate?”
“I have no idea.”
“Then I’ll make him.”
“Leah.”
“Yeah?”
“If Rusk really searched for that phone before...”
“I know.”
“He may still be searching.”
“I know.”
“Do not call Bell County police.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“And don’t tell anyone where you’re going unless you trust them.”
Leah paused.
“Elena, listen to me.”
“What?”
“If that phone is where Chloe says it is, we have something concrete. Not a theory. Not another witness trying to remember five-year-old details.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Then find it.”
“I will.”
The call ended.
At 10:46 a.m., Leah Mercer was already in her car.
She drove with one hand and called her investigator with the other.
“Owen.”
“You sound cheerful.”
“Get dressed.”
“I am dressed.”
“Then get your forensic kit.”
Silence.
“That kind of morning?”
“That kind.”
Twenty-eight minutes later, Owen Beck climbed into Leah’s passenger seat carrying two cases.
He was forty-two, former military police, and permanently looked as if he distrusted the entire human race.
Leah liked that about him.
“What happened?”
She told him.
He stopped joking.
“A hidden phone?”
“Supposedly.”
“And Rusk knew about it?”
“According to Chloe.”
Owen stared through the windshield.
“Then if it exists, somebody has spent five years hoping it stays hidden.”
“Exactly.”
Leah called the probate court.
Then Ruth Cole’s estate attorney.
Then Peter.
He answered on the fourth ring.
“What?”
“Peter, it’s Leah Mercer.”
Silence.
“I know who you are.”
“I need access to your mother’s house.”
“No.”
“It concerns Nathan.”
“My brother has been dead for five years.”
“I’m aware.”
“And Elena murdered him.”
Leah tightened her grip on the wheel.
“Chloe says Nathan hid evidence in the house before he died.”
Nothing.
Then:
“What evidence?”
“A phone.”
Peter laughed once.
A cold sound.
“That phone again?”
“So you remember it.”
“I remember Elena talking about some magic phone that was supposed to prove she didn’t stab my brother.”
“Chloe remembers it too.”
The laughter stopped.
“What did you say?”
“Your mother told Chloe where Nathan hid it.”
Peter’s breathing changed.
Leah pressed harder.
“Behind the yellow moon in Chloe’s old bedroom.”
Peter said nothing.
“Peter?”
“My mother knew?”
“Apparently.”
“Why wouldn’t she tell me?”
“I don’t know.”
Another pause.
Then Peter said, “I’ll meet you there.”
The Cole house stood at the end of Cedar Vale Road behind two old oak trees.
Leah arrived at 11:38.
Peter was already on the porch.
He looked older than she remembered.
Nathan had been the younger brother.
Peter had the same eyes.
That made Leah uncomfortable.
He held up a key.
“You have one hour.”
“If we find what Chloe described, I may need longer.”
“If you find anything.”
Owen opened the first forensic case.
Peter frowned.
“What’s that?”
“Gloves. Evidence bags. Camera.”
“This isn’t a crime scene.”
Owen looked at him.
“Maybe it should have been.”
Peter’s face hardened.
Leah stepped between them.
“Let’s go.”
The house smelled closed up.
Dust.
Old furniture.
A faint trace of Ruth’s lavender air freshener.
Family photographs covered one wall.
Nathan as a teenager.
Nathan graduating college.
Nathan holding newborn Chloe.
One photograph showed Elena beside him.
Someone had turned it facedown.
Leah looked at Peter.
He looked away.
“Upstairs.”
They climbed.
Chloe’s bedroom door was still covered with faded stickers.
Peter stopped outside it.
“My mother never changed this room.”
Leah pushed the door open.
Pink walls.
White stars.
A small empty bookshelf.
And beside the closet...
The yellow moon.
Nobody spoke.
Owen put on gloves.
“From here on, nobody touches anything except me.”
Peter leaned against the doorway.
“This is insane.”
Owen photographed the entire wall.
Then closer shots.
The moon sticker was nearly two feet tall.
Its edges had curled slightly with age.
Owen ran a small light across the surface.
“Interesting.”
Leah stepped closer.
“What?”
“There’s a cut.”
“Where?”
“Along the inside edge.”
He pointed.
Someone had sliced the drywall behind the sticker.
Carefully.
Then put the moon back over it.
Peter stopped breathing.
Owen photographed it again.
Then slowly peeled one side of the yellow moon away from the wall.
Behind it was a rectangular opening.
Leah felt her pulse jump.
“Can you see anything?”
Owen used a flashlight.
“Yeah.”
“What?”
“A plastic bag.”
Peter whispered, “Jesus Christ.”
Owen reached inside.
His gloved fingers caught something.
Slowly, he pulled out a freezer bag wrapped with old gray tape.
Inside was a phone.
Blue.
Leah stared at it.
Five years.
Five years, and there it was.
Nathan’s phone had existed the entire time.
Peter sat down hard on Chloe’s old bed.
“My mother knew.”
Owen placed the bag on a clean evidence sheet.
“There’s something else inside the wall.”
He reached back in.
This time he removed a folded piece of paper.
Leah’s throat tightened.
“Open it.”
Owen photographed the paper before unfolding it.
Three words were written across the top.
IF I DIE.
Peter made a choking sound.
Leah recognized Nathan’s handwriting from trial exhibits.
Below the words was a six-digit number.
Owen looked at the phone.
“Passcode?”
“Probably.”
Leah pulled out her phone.
“Don’t power it on.”
“I know.”
“We need an independent forensic examiner.”
“Already thinking the same thing.”
Peter stood.
“Can I see that note?”
“No.”
“It’s my brother’s.”
“And it may now be evidence in a capital case.”
“My brother is the victim.”
Leah turned toward him.
“And Elena is scheduled to die at six.”
That silenced him.
She called Warden Mitchell first.
He answered immediately.
“Mercer.”
“We found it.”
Mitchell didn't respond.
“The blue phone,” Leah said. “Exactly where Chloe said it would be.”
“Are you certain it belonged to Nathan?”
“Not yet. But there's a note in what appears to be his handwriting saying ‘IF I DIE’ followed by a six-digit code.”
Mitchell exhaled.
“Get it authenticated.”
“I am.”
“I'll notify the attorney general.”
Leah looked at Owen.
“Do not notify anyone connected to Bell County.”
Mitchell paused.
“Why?”
“Because Calvin Rusk was lead investigator.”
“I know.”
“And according to Chloe, Rusk went looking for this exact phone after Nathan died.”
Mitchell's tone changed.
“Understood.”
“Warden.”
“Yes?”
“Document everything from this point forward.”
“I already am.”
They ended the call.
Owen carefully sealed the phone inside a new evidence container.
Peter stood by the window staring outside.
“I spent five years believing her.”
Leah looked at him.
“Believing Elena killed him?”
He nodded.
“What if I was wrong?”
Leah didn't soften the answer.
“Then you weren't the only one.”
Back at Huntsville, Mitchell stood inside his office reading the written summary from Chloe's interview.
The prison legal coordinator sat across from him.
“If the device contains legitimate new evidence, the court could issue another stay.”
Mitchell looked at the clock.
12:07 p.m.
Less than six hours.
“Could?”
“Until we know what's on it, that's all anyone can say.”
Mitchell rubbed his forehead.
His desk phone rang.
He almost ignored it.
Then he saw the caller ID.
CALVIN RUSK.
Mitchell stared at the name.
The legal coordinator noticed.
“Who is it?”
Mitchell lifted a finger.
He answered.
“Detective Rusk.”
Rusk's voice was casual.
Too casual.
“Warden.”
“What can I do for you?”
“Heard Elena Cole got her last family visit.”
Mitchell's expression did not change.
“Where did you hear that?”
“People talk.”
“Death row visitation records aren't public in real time.”
Rusk laughed softly.
“Come on, Robert.”
Mitchell's eyes narrowed.
“What do you want?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you calling me?”
A pause.
Mitchell could hear traffic behind him.
Rusk was in a car.
Finally he said:
“Just wondering if the little girl said anything strange.”
Mitchell looked down at Chloe's written statement.
The yellow moon.
The blue phone.
The raven tattoo.
He kept his voice flat.
“Children say strange things all the time.”
Rusk was silent.
Then his tone changed.
Only slightly.
May you like
But enough.
“Did the kid say anything about a phone?”
