My Grandson Called Me In The Middle Of The Night: ‘Grandma, I’m At The Station… My Stepfather Told Me To Leave, And Now He’s Saying I Caused Trouble, And They Took His Word!’ When I Arrived At The Station, The Officer Paused And Said, ‘I’m Sorry… I DIDN’T KNOW.’

“Judge Sullivan, I’m releasing Tyler into your custody pending further investigation. However, I should note that this situation is complicated by guardianship issues. His mother is his legal guardian, not you.”

“I’m aware of the legal technicalities,” I replied.

“But given that Jennifer is currently working a hospital night shift and her home is potentially unsafe due to Miller’s presence, I believe even the most cursory application of the best interest of the child standard would support temporary placement with me.”

“I agree, but we’ll need to contact his mother.”

“Of course, I’ll call her myself once Tyler is safely with me.”

Peterson arrived with Tyler’s phone in an evidence bag, placing it on the captain’s desk with a nervousness that suggested he was fully aware of the potential trouble brewing. “The phone is locked,” he reported, avoiding my gaze. “Tyler can unlock it,” I stated, under proper supervision to maintain chain of custody.

Reynolds nodded. “Have the juvenile brought here.”

When Tyler entered minutes later, his eyes darted anxiously between the adults before settling on me. I gave him a reassuring nod.

“Tyler,” Reynolds began, her tone deliberately gentle. “We need to access the contents of your phone as part of our investigation. Can you unlock it for us?”

He glanced at me again, and I nodded once more.

“It’s all right. We need to verify your account of what happened.”

Tyler took the phone from its evidence bag and entered his passcode. “The recordings are in a password protected app,” he explained, his voice steadier now.

“I started keeping them after the second week we lived there. When Robert threw my backpack across the room because I was late coming home from school.”

He navigated to an innocuous looking calculator app, entered another code, and suddenly the interface changed to reveal a list of audio files, each labeled with dates and brief descriptions. “This is tonight,” Tyler said, selecting the most recent file.

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