Chapter 18 - The Last ConversationThe cassette was old but playable.
Detective Ruiz insisted it be handled as evidence.
Sarah listened with Daniel.
At first, static.
Then her father’s voice.
“You’re wasting your time.”
Victor Lang answered.
“I don’t think so.”
“You won’t get the keys.”
“Diane says otherwise.”
Sarah’s jaw tightened.
Her father laughed.
“That woman would sell her own family and call it loyalty.”
A pause.
Lang said, “She says Ryan is easy to control.”
“He is afraid.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
Thomas’s voice hardened.
“Fear can end. Character remains.”
Sarah thought of Ryan.
The kennel.
The confession.
The difference mattered.
Not enough to forgive him.
But enough to understand her father’s words.
On the recording, papers shifted.
Thomas said, “I know what happened with the brokerage.”
“I know.”
“I know you bought the debt.”
“Yes.”
“And I know Diane gave you information from my attorney’s office.”
Victor did not respond.
Thomas continued.
“You’re going to walk away.”
“Why?”
“Because tomorrow I send everything to federal investigators.”
Sarah looked at Daniel.
He stared back.
This was new.
Lang’s voice became colder.
“You don’t have enough.”
“I have Diane’s payments.”
Silence.
“I have the transfers.”
Longer silence.
“And I have your messages.”
Victor finally spoke.
“Where?”
Thomas laughed.
“You think I’d tell you?”
The cassette clicked.
Then resumed.
Possibly a break in recording.
Victor’s voice sounded different.
“You’ve made this personal.”
“No. You did that when you involved my grandson.”
“He’s a beneficiary on paper.”
“He’s a child.”
“He’s an obstacle.”
Sarah felt ice move through her body.
Thomas’s chair scraped.
“Get out.”
Then another voice entered.
Diane.
Sarah froze.
“You should listen to him, Victor.”
Sarah looked at Daniel.
Diane had been there.
Not merely connected.
Physically there.
Lang said, “Why are you here?”
Diane replied, “Because Thomas called me.”
Sarah’s father said, “I wanted both of you to understand something.”
“What?”
“If anything happens to me tonight, tomorrow, or ten years from now, Sarah will eventually find out what you did.”
Diane laughed.
“You give her too much credit.”
Thomas replied instantly.
“No. You give her too little.”
Sarah covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
Her father spoke directly to Diane.
“You have spent your entire life convincing Ryan that love is leverage.”
Diane’s voice sharpened.
“Don’t talk about my son.”
“You made him afraid of being poor.”
“I made him ambitious.”
“You made him ashamed of being ordinary.”
Silence.
“You taught him every relationship is a contest someone must win.”
Diane whispered, “You think Sarah is better than him.”
“No.”
Thomas paused.
“I think Sarah knows when she’s wrong. Ryan has never learned how.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
The argument escalated.
Then Victor interrupted.
“This is pointless.”
Footsteps.
A door opened.
Lang said, “We’re done.”
Then his footsteps faded.
But Diane remained.
Sarah’s pulse quickened.
Thomas asked, “Why are you still here?”
Diane’s voice became soft.
“Because you’re destroying my family.”
“Ryan destroyed his own future when he stole.”
“He made one mistake.”
“He lied for years.”
“You were going to turn him against me.”
“No. I told him to tell his wife the truth.”
“You don’t understand loyalty.”
Thomas sighed.
“No, Diane. I understand it better than you ever will.”
A long silence followed.
Then Diane said something almost too quiet to hear.
“If you weren’t here, none of this would be happening.”
Sarah stopped breathing.
Thomas answered.
“Is that a threat?”
“No.”
A chair moved.
Then Diane said:
“It’s just the truth.”
The recording ended.
Sarah stared at the cassette player.
Daniel looked pale.
“This doesn’t prove she harmed him.”
“No.”
But it proved Diane had been one of the last people with him.
Perhaps the last.
Sarah asked Ruiz to reopen every detail surrounding her father’s death.
His heart attack may still have been natural.
But Diane’s lie about being there was now undeniable.
Then another discovery arrived from the lake house.
Inside Diane’s burned documents, technicians recovered fragments of a letter.
Only several lines remained readable.
…medication caused no detectable…
…preexisting cardiac condition…
…dosage must not exceed…
Sarah felt the room go cold.
Daniel whispered, “Thomas took heart medication.”
Sarah looked at him.
“What kind?”
“A prescription nitrate.”
“And Diane knew?”
“She was around him often.”
Sarah stared at the burned fragments.
No proof.
Not yet.
May you like
But the question had become darker.
What exactly happened after Victor Lang left Thomas Carter’s office?
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