Chapter 12 - WARREN’S CHOICE
The microphone transmitted to a receiver hidden inside Warren’s titanium cuff link.
He claimed he did not know it was there.
Ortiz did not believe him.
Warren asked to speak with Naomi alone.
She refused.
Lila remained behind the glass with Evelyn.
“You want the truth?” Warren asked. “Let her hear it.”
Naomi looked at her daughter.
“No more secrets,” Lila said.
Warren lowered his eyes.
Three years earlier, Ethan discovered that Gideon was stealing from the children’s trust.
Warren had already approved two false transactions.
He believed the money would be returned before Arthur noticed.
When Ethan confronted him, Warren went to Gideon.
Gideon promised to solve the problem.
“What did solve mean?” Naomi asked.
“I thought he would frighten Ethan.”
“Did you know about the crash?”
“Not until it happened.”
“Then why did you identify the body?”
Gideon told him Ethan was dead.
The body was too badly burned to recognize.
Warren signed the identification because Gideon threatened to expose his theft.
“You buried an unknown man under my husband’s name.”
“I was afraid.”
Lila touched her bandage.
“You were afraid before you hit me too.”
Warren could not face her.
Gideon had called him on the wedding morning.
He said Ethan’s phone would be delivered to the ballroom.
Warren had one task.
Plant it on Lila.
Destroy her credibility.
Retrieve the phone after the accusation.
“What was inside the second copy?” Naomi asked.
“I don’t know.”
“What did Ethan hide it in?”
“Something Lila would never throw away.”
Lila thought about her music box.
It had been removed from Caldwell Tower and delivered to the hotel.
Police found it in the empty ballroom.
Its lid was open.
Ethan’s lullaby played by itself.
Naomi approached it with Ortiz.
A microphone inside the box was listening.
Gideon’s voice came through the hotel speakers.
“Place the titanium phone inside.”
“In exchange for what?”
“Your husband.”
Naomi placed a matching power bank inside the box.
The hidden compartment scanned it.
Red light flashed.
“You still underestimate me,” Gideon said.
Smoke poured from the kitchen vents.
Fire alarms sounded.
Sprinklers covered the ballroom.
Naomi seized the music box before Ortiz pulled her away.
The heat destroyed its internal drive.
But beneath the lid, Naomi found a strip of paper.
Ethan’s handwriting covered it.
MIRIAM IS NOT THE JAILER.
May you like
SHE IS THE PRISONER WHO ESCAPED.
On the other side was the address of Ethan’s grave.
