Chapter 7 - I nearly destroy the evidence
My meaningful mistake happened four days after the USB was found.
Detective Brooks had told me repeatedly:
Do not access Vanessa’s private accounts.
Do not confront potential witnesses about facts.
Do not circulate evidence.
I followed two of those.
Then failed the third.
Vanessa and I shared a desktop computer in the home office.
Separate user profiles.
But years earlier, when our printer software malfunctioned, she had saved her browser passwords under the system keychain.
I opened the computer looking for household bills.
A notification appeared from her email.
Subject:
MARA DRIVE
I should have closed it.
Called Hannah.
I did not.
I clicked.
Vanessa’s account opened without asking for a new password because she had previously authorized the browser.
There were twelve emails.
I read them.
Then exported them to PDF.
Then forwarded them to myself.
Only after that did I call my attorney.
Rebecca Sloan went silent for three full seconds.
“What exactly did you access?”
“Her email.”
“Current account?”
“Yes.”
“Did she give you permission?”
“No.”
“Ryan.”
“I know.”
“No, I’m not sure you do.”
“I found emails about Mara.”
“That does not turn you into law enforcement.”
My hands shook.
“Can police use them?”
“Maybe, maybe not. More importantly, you may have created a privacy and evidentiary problem that did not need to exist.”
I wanted to defend myself.
Then remembered Noah sitting inside the cage.
Wrong does not become right because your reason is emotionally persuasive.
Rebecca instructed:
Stop access.
Preserve what I had done.
Do not delete my exports.
Tell Detective Brooks exactly how I obtained them.
I did.
She was unhappy.
“Do not send me the files directly.”
“Why?”
“We will obtain records independently if there is legal basis.”
The emails later became available through proper legal process.
My copies were unnecessary.
I had gained nothing except giving Vanessa’s defense something to question.
That humbled me.
I had wanted to feel useful.
Investigation made me feel powerless.
May you like
Powerless fathers can become bad evidence technicians.
I stopped.
