Every Time My Daughter Came Home Unresponsive, My Husband Told Me Not to Worry. The Recording in Her Backpack Revealed Why.

I told him about the backpack compartment, the drive to school, and the afternoon Spencer returned my daughter.

He did not promise the recording would solve the case.

He explained that investigators would have to establish what it captured, how it had been obtained, and whether other evidence supported what the men said.

That caution frightened me at first.

Then I realized it also meant that they intended to find the truth, not simply accept whichever story sounded most convincing.

Before leaving the room, I asked a question I’d been carrying all morning.