Chapter 5 - Every Coincidence Became Evidence
Daniel refused to let me contact Caleb directly.
Instead, he contacted Caleb's attorney.
Two days later, Caleb agreed to speak.
His statement shattered Brooke's timeline.
According to Caleb, Brooke had begun telling him I was “watching them” less than three weeks after the breakup.
At first, he believed her.
Why wouldn't he?
He was angry with me.
Brooke was his oldest friend.
Then she began producing photographs.
“She'd say Hannah was outside,” Caleb explained. “Or Hannah was at the same restaurant.”
Daniel asked the obvious question.
“Did you personally see Hannah?”
“Usually no.”
Usually.
That word mattered.
Caleb admitted Brooke had frequently noticed me before he did.
Sometimes I was supposedly gone by the time he looked.
Sometimes Brooke showed him photographs afterward.
Then Daniel asked about the anonymous texts.
Caleb had received some too.
You picked the wrong woman.
Hope she was worth it.
But there was something Brooke hadn't included in her filing.
The first anonymous text to Caleb had arrived while I was sitting in Daniel's office.
We could prove it.
Daniel's receptionist remembered me.
The building's security system recorded my arrival.
My phone records showed no outgoing message.
Could I have scheduled something?
Could I have used another device?
Technically.
But Brooke's certainty suddenly looked less justified.
Daniel requested phone records connected to the anonymous number.
The number belonged to a prepaid service.
Dead end.
Then Melissa called me.
“You need to come over.”
“What happened?”
“I found something.”
Months earlier, during her birthday party, Melissa's building security camera had captured the lobby.
She had requested archived footage before it was automatically deleted because she'd had a package stolen.
The birthday footage was still on an old external drive.
We watched it.
At 7:43, I entered.
At 8:11, Brooke entered alone.
Caleb arrived at 8:16.
Brooke had apparently arrived separately.
But that wasn't the important part.
At 10:04, I left.
At 10:06, Brooke left.
At 10:07, the camera outside caught me walking toward my car.
Twenty seconds later, Brooke appeared behind me.
Phone raised.
Following me.
I watched the footage three times.
My skin prickled.
Melissa whispered, “Hannah…”
“I know.”
Brooke had claimed I followed her.
The camera showed the opposite.
Daniel filed the footage immediately.
Then things escalated.
The next morning, I found another envelope under my apartment door.
No photograph this time.
Just one sentence.
DROP THE CASE.
I called the police.
For the first time, there was an official report.
Daniel requested building footage.
My apartment complex had recently installed a camera near the elevator.
At 2:14 a.m., a hooded figure entered the hallway.
The face wasn't visible.
But the person made a mistake.
They used a key fob to enter the building.
Management traced it.
The fob belonged to apartment 412.
The tenant in 412 was a man named Eric Dalton.
I had never heard the name.
Police interviewed him.
May you like
Eric denied leaving anything.
Then he admitted Brooke was his cousin.
