Chapter 12 - Claire's VoiceRichard listened to the first recording alone.
Maria offered to stay.
He couldn't let her.
Detective Ward warned him that the files were evidence and asked him not to interrupt the forensic review, but she allowed him to hear selected copies.
Richard sat in the basement office wearing headphones.
Then Claire's voice filled his ears.
Alive.
Clear.
Six years vanished.
“I don't know why we're doing this.”
A man's voice answered.
Thomas Keller.
“For your protection.”
Claire laughed nervously.
“You're my attorney, Tom, not my therapist.”
“I need documentation.”
“Of what?”
“Your concerns about Richard.”
Richard stopped breathing.
Claire continued.
“I don't have concerns about Richard.”
“You told me your marriage was under stress.”
“Every marriage experiences stress.”
“And you worry about Ethan.”
“I worry because someone is following me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Keller's voice became calm.
“Could stress be affecting your perception?”
Richard ripped off the headphones.
He knew what this was.
Keller had been building a record portraying Claire as unstable.
Why?
He forced himself to continue.
Recording four.
Claire sounded angry.
“I saw Nathan outside Ethan's daycare.”
Keller answered, “Nathan is Richard's partner.”
“He told me he was in Philadelphia.”
“Perhaps plans changed.”
“He followed me home.”
“You don't know that.”
“I do.”
“Claire, listen to yourself.”
Richard's fists tightened.
Recording seven.
Claire:
“There is a woman.”
Keller:
“What woman?”
“I've seen her twice.”
“Where?”
“Across from the house.”
“What does she look like?”
“Brown hair. About thirty.”
Richard's heart stopped.
Vanessa would have been twenty-nine.
Claire continued.
“She took pictures.”
Keller sighed.
“You should rest.”
“Stop telling me I'm imagining this.”
Recording nine.
Claire was crying.
“I found the money.”
Keller went silent.
“What money?”
“Richard's company accounts. Nathan has been moving funds.”
“Does Richard know?”
“No.”
“You must not accuse Nathan without proof.”
“I have proof.”
“Where?”
“I made copies.”
Richard froze.
Nathan had been stealing from him six years ago.
Claire discovered it.
Everything changed.
Recording twelve.
Claire spoke quietly.
“I think Nathan knows.”
“How?”
“He asked whether I'd been in Richard's office.”
Keller said, “Where are the copies?”
Claire hesitated.
“Somewhere safe.”
“Claire.”
“No.”
“You need to give them to me.”
“Why?”
“So I can protect you.”
“I don't trust you anymore.”
Silence.
Keller's voice changed.
“That's unfortunate.”
Richard removed the headphones.
His hands were shaking.
Detective Ward stood in the doorway.
“You need to hear the final one.”
“I don't think I can.”
“You do.”
She played it through the room speaker.
Claire was inside a car.
Windshield wipers.
Rain.
Her breathing fast.
“Maria, call me back.”
Richard looked at Ward.
“This wasn't sent to Maria?”
“It appears to be a voice memo.”
Claire continued.
“I know who the woman is now.”
Richard closed his eyes.
“She works with Nathan. Her name is Vanessa Hart.”
Maria appeared in the doorway.
Richard hadn't heard her enter.
Claire's voice filled the room.
“I found photographs. Nathan has known her for years.”
Richard opened his eyes.
Claire continued.
“If something happens to me, Richard needs to know Nathan is stealing from the company.”
A horn sounded in the recording.
Claire gasped.
“They're behind me again.”
Tires hissed against wet pavement.
Then Claire said the words that would stay with Richard forever.
“That's Vanessa driving.”
The recording erupted into noise.
A horn.
Claire screaming.
Metal.
Then silence.
Maria began crying.
Richard didn't move.
He could not.
Ward stopped the audio.
“We don't know whether Vanessa caused the crash.”
Richard stared at nothing.
“She was there.”
“Yes.”
“Nathan was there.”
“His vehicle passed the toll point.”
“Keller covered it up.”
“We're investigating.”
Richard laughed once.
It sounded broken.
“They were all there.”
Ward sat across from him.
“Richard, listen carefully. Ethan's freezer incident may not have started yesterday.”
Richard finally looked at her.
“What?”
“Claire discovered Nathan's financial crimes. Vanessa was connected to him. Keller appears to have manipulated records.”
Ward pointed upstairs.
“Years later, Vanessa marries you.”
Richard's mouth went dry.
Ward continued.
“Then Ethan finds a phone containing evidence of Vanessa and Nathan's current relationship.”
Maria whispered,
“She didn't marry Richard by accident.”
No one spoke.
Richard remembered their first meeting.
Nathan inviting him to the charity gala.
Vanessa appearing alone near the bar.
Their conversation feeling effortless.
Her understanding his grief.
Her patience with Ethan.
Her insistence that she never wanted to replace Claire.
Richard suddenly felt nauseated.
His entire second marriage might have been engineered.
Ward's phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed instantly.
“When?”
She stood.
“Lock down the pediatric floor.”
Richard jumped up.
“What happened?”
Ward ended the call.
“Keller was seen entering St. Catherine's ten minutes ago.”
Maria went pale.
Richard was already running.
Because Thomas Keller wasn't hiding anymore.
May you like
He was going toward the only witness who could identify what happened in that basement.
Ethan.
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