By evening, investigators had discovered inconsistencies.
There had been no positive identification through DNA.
The body recovered after the supposed boating accident had been badly damaged.
The original identification had relied on personal belongings.
And the person who signed the final report had later lost his medical license for falsifying documents.
Richard Price might never have died.
***
That night, I received a message from an unknown number.
*Emily, your mother hasn't told you everything.*
I stared at the screen.
Another message appeared.
*Ask her why the other women disappeared.*
I immediately forwarded both messages to Detective Harris.
Then a photograph arrived.
It showed five elderly women sitting together around a dining table.
The photograph was dated three weeks earlier.
I recognized their faces from Alex's backpack.
The first five women.
All alive.
But something was wrong.
They were sitting in a room with bare walls and a locked metal door.
