Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN WHO SIGNED BESIDE HIM
Detective Park found a second set of initials inside the binder.
L.C.
They belonged to Dean’s younger sister, Laura Cole.
Laura had managed payroll and human resources for Cole Residential. During the criminal investigation, she claimed she knew nothing about Emma’s disclosure or Dean’s efforts to move Mason out of state.
The binder showed that Laura had processed payments to two families.
She had changed Tessa’s summer-employment file from terminated following complaint to resigned for personal reasons.
Laura lived outside Spokane and now operated a nonprofit organization claiming to help teenagers enter skilled trades.
When reporters asked about the reopened investigation, she issued a statement describing Dean as “a frightened father who made imperfect decisions under unbearable pressure.”
She did not mention Mason’s victims.
Two days later, Laura came to our apartment.
I saw her through the peephole and did not open the door.
“Hannah,” she called. “I’m not here to fight.”
Emma appeared at the end of the hallway.
“Who is it?”
“Laura.”
Her face changed.
Laura had brought birthday gifts after Emma disclosed the abuse. She hugged her, cried beside her and promised she had never known what Mason had done.
Now her initials sat beside the records used to silence Tessa.
“I need five minutes,” Laura said through the door. “There are details the binder doesn’t explain.”
Emma walked toward me.
“Open it.”
“You don’t have to see her.”
“I know.”
I left the chain attached and opened the door only several inches.
Laura wore a gray coat and held a bakery box as though she had come for coffee.
“The payments weren’t bribes,” she said. “They were support for families dealing with misunderstandings.”
“You altered employment records.”
“Dean told me the complaints were exaggerated.”
“And you believed him four times?”
Her eyes moved past me toward Emma.
“I was protecting a company that employed forty people.”
Emma stepped into view.
“You came to the hospital and told me you wished I had trusted you.”
Laura went pale.
“I meant that.”
“You already knew what happened when other girls trusted you.”
The bakery box trembled in Laura’s hands.
“I never knew it went that far.”
Emma did not raise her voice.
“How far did it have to go before I mattered?”
Laura placed the box on the floor.
Then she removed an envelope from her purse and pushed it through the opening.
Inside was a settlement offer.
Laura would pay for Emma’s therapy and college expenses if we agreed not to connect her nonprofit organization to the investigation.
I tore the document in half.
Laura watched the pieces fall.
“You’re making an enemy you cannot afford,” she said.
Emma reached past me and closed the door.
The following morning, our landlord delivered an eviction notice.
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The building had been purchased the previous month by a holding company.
Its registered agent was Laura Cole.
