Miriam closed the folder.
“We’ll seek the records properly.
We won’t put anyone in danger trying to retrieve them.”
But Mark had already begun destroying documents.
Two nights later, a storage facility connected to Carter Medical Transport reported a break-in.
Several boxes were missing.
Security footage showed two people entering with valid access credentials shortly before the records disappeared.
One appeared to be Celeste.
The other couldn’t immediately be identified.
By then, investigators had obtained enough financial evidence to pursue broader action involving the company’s accounts.
But the older personal records were still missing.
Vanessa was devastated.
“They were there,” she kept saying.
“I saw the inventory.”
Miriam reassured her.
“An inventory is useful.
It establishes that the records existed.
We can look for duplicates.”
I barely heard them.
The possibility that Mark had hidden something about our daughter’s death consumed every waking thought.
I requested every record I could from the county, the state, and the successor organization that maintained some of Briar County Memorial’s archives.
