Page 111 of All for her Forgiveness

The expert touches the phone screen through the plastic, and I can see he's searching for something among the files. When he finds it, he stops but doesn't press play yet. "This device belongs to Miss O'Neal."

"What?"

"In the room she was occupying in that house, there was a kind of secret door inside the closet. I don't have all the answers—I don't know how she found it. That can only be clarified when she fully recovers her memory, but the place served as a kind of hideout for her that night. The fact is, after watching this video, I firmly believe that if Miss O'Neal hadn't found the secret room, she would have ended up the same way as Pam Marcotte. It's not that the criminal spared her—he didn't know where she’d fled to."

"Are you telling me Kennedy only survived because she hid?"

"That's right. And beyond that, she had the presence of mind to record what was happening almost from the beginning and hide the phone with her inside that secret room. At times, you'll only hear the voices of the people present, but at others, there are recordings of the faces of Ryan Corey III and Pam Marcotte as well."

"Damn!" I feel the adrenaline rush through my veins.

"We don't have the murder itself. Miss O'Neal probably fled before it happened, but it's not hard to imagine what came after. In the end, the theory of a drug-induced frenzy that the prosecution maintains isn't far from the truth, but it wasn't Miss O'Neal who was in charge: it was Pam Marcotte and Ryan Corey III."

"Play the video," I request.

If someone had told me a few months ago that Pam had used drugs voluntarily, I would have doubted it. Of course, the autopsy revealed there was alcohol and cocaine in her system in massive doses, but I imagined she had been forced to use it.

From the moment I reunited with Kennedy, all my certainties regarding Pam began to disintegrate, and as soon as the video starts, any good memory that remained of her is destroyed because all I can hear is my wife's terrified voice on the phone recording.

"I'm recording this in case something happens to me. They don't want to let me leave. They've been using drugs for hours. They tried to give me some, and at first, when I said no, I thought it would be okay. Ryan has been here since we arrived, but I thought he wouldn't be staying."

Throughout her speech, her voice sounds shaky, anxious, and it's obvious she's very scared.

It's a struggle to keep focused because everything inside me screams to stop it, to go back in time and save her, but I know it's impossible.

"I told Pam I was leaving tomorrow morning. It was a mistake to come here. Pam is a lying bitch. I heard her when she called Hades and the lies she told. She told him on the phone that I was the one who invited Ryan here. I don't know what to do. I can't walk away at this hour—there are no houses nearby. Whoever finds this recording, if something happens to me, it was them."

Next comes a recording of Pam naked with Ryan, having sex on a couch, which I remember is on the first floor of that house. The footage is quick; I think Kennedy only recorded it to understand the context. Shortly after, we only hear her voice.

"They've been using cocaine since early today."

Another cut in the recording, and then voices.

"I'm not going downstairs, Pam. Let me go."

"It's better if you come with me, Kennedy. Ryan is fed up with being nice. If he comes up to get you, it will be worse. You know there's no way out. He wants you."

"You're crazy if you think I'll sleep with that animal."

"Of course you will, and I'll film it all. I told him he could play with you as long as he did it from good angles. Let's see if Hades will want you after watching this."

"Son of a bitch! Damn!" I stand up, unable to stay still any longer. I imagined, from Remo's warning, that it would be difficult to watch, but I had no idea of the level of depravity of those two.

"Get out, or I swear I'll hurt you,"we hear Kennedy shout.

"With what? With this little statue?"

It's noticeable from Pam's voice that she's totally out of it, drugged.

"Don't touch me, Pam. Nooo, let go of me! Nooo!"

"Jesus Christ!" Zeus exclaims, also standing up, and then we hear the sound of a body falling.

"What did you do?"For the first time, a male voice is heard.

"There's the bastard," Remo says.

"You bad girl! Who would have thought that sweet Juliet could hurt someone? Did you kill her? Hmm . . . no. She still has a pulse. She'll wake up soon. Meanwhile, come here. Let's have some fun."

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