Chapter 5 - The Missing Phone
Daniel returned to the chapel before dawn.
No one asked where he had been.
That frightened him more than suspicion would have.
Helena sat near the altar.
Marcus spoke quietly with Dr. Hale.
The moment Daniel entered, they stopped.
“Where is Clara’s phone?” he asked.
Helena looked up.
“I don’t know.”
“She had it yesterday.”
“It may be at home.”
“It isn’t.”
Marcus folded his arms.
“Why does it matter?”
Daniel did not mention the nursery recording.
“Because she contacted me before she died.”
Helena’s fingers tightened around her handkerchief.
“What did she say?”
“Nothing important.”
The relief in her face was immediate.
Daniel walked to the coffin.
Clara’s left hand was partly concealed by the satin lining.
He lifted the fabric carefully.
A small bruise marked her wrist.
Something had been strapped there.
Perhaps a hospital identification band.
Perhaps a watch.
Clara wore a smartwatch almost every day.
It was missing.
Daniel remembered buying it for her birthday.
The watch automatically stored heart-rate data and synchronized voice commands with her phone.
If the watch recorded anything during her collapse, it could prove whether she had been alive when Dr. Hale declared her dead.
Daniel searched the preparation room.
Nothing.
Then he noticed the funeral director’s assistant placing a black trash bag near the service exit.
“Wait.”
The young woman stopped.
Daniel opened the bag.
Inside were tissues, packaging, cotton pads, and disposable gloves.
At the bottom lay Clara’s smartwatch.
Its screen was cracked.
But the device still powered on.
Daniel slipped it into his pocket before Marcus entered.
“What are you doing back here?”
“Looking for my wife’s belongings.”
“They were returned to Mother.”
“All of them?”
Marcus stared at him.
“Yes.”
Daniel smiled without warmth.
“Then someone made a mistake.”
He walked away.
Inside the chapel restroom, he connected the watch to his phone.
The heart-rate history loaded slowly.
Clara’s pulse had dropped sharply after 5:07 p.m.
But it had never reached zero.
At 6:00 p.m.—the time Dr. Hale declared her dead—the watch still recorded a faint heartbeat.
Even at midnight, hours after embalming should have begun, there was intermittent cardiac activity.
Daniel stared at the screen.
Clara had been alive inside the coffin all night.
Then a final audio file appeared.
Timestamp: 5:12 p.m.
He pressed play.
Marcus’s voice came through.
“How long will it keep her under?”
Dr. Hale answered.
“Long enough, unless the pregnancy changes the metabolism.”
Helena spoke last.
May you like
“Then she must be cremated before Daniel arrives.”
👉 Clara’s watch proved the conspiracy—but Daniel still had to stop the cremation without alerting them long enough for help to arrive.
