Chapter 6 - THE VOICE RECORDING
Arthur called Peter back six times.
Nothing.
Serena ordered a trace.
The phone had already been turned off.
Maya watched Arthur pace.
“You’re doing what he wants.”
He stopped.
“What?”
“You’re looking at everyone like they might be the enemy.”
“Maybe they are.”
“That’s the point.”
Arthur stared at her.
She continued.
“If Peter wanted to help, he would’ve said a name.”
Arthur hated that she was right.
Lucas was brought home the following morning under police protection.
He refused to sleep in his old bedroom.
Arthur didn’t question it.
They moved a bed into the library.
Maya had meant to leave after the hospital.
She stayed.
Nobody asked her to.
Lucas simply looked at her and said, “Can you stay until I fall asleep?”
So she did.
At two in the morning, Arthur found her sitting outside the library door.
“You can go home.”
“I know.”
“You’ve been awake for almost two days.”
“So have you.”
“I live here.”
Maya gave him a tired smile.
“Lucky you.”
Arthur actually laughed.
It surprised both of them.
Then Lucas called softly.
“Dad?”
Arthur entered.
Lucas held something in his hand.
A small black recorder.
“Where did you get that?”
“It was in my sock.”
Maya frowned.
“Your sock?”
Lucas nodded.
“Uncle Peter gave it to me.”
Arthur sat beside him.
“When?”
“The first night.”
Arthur took the recorder carefully.
“Did he say why?”
“He said if Isabella came back, push the red button.”
Arthur looked at Maya.
They called Serena.
The recorder contained seven audio files.
The first was mostly breathing and distant crying.
The second captured Isabella’s voice.
“You should have told me where Claire hid the key.”
Lucas whimpered.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
Then Peter spoke.
“Enough, Isabella.”
Arthur’s eyes narrowed.
Isabella snapped, “Stay out of it.”
Peter replied, “You said we were scaring him. You didn’t say you were locking him up.”
“You’re already involved.”
“I’m not hurting a kid.”
“You helped move the papers.”
“That’s fraud. This is kidnapping.”
A door slammed.
The recording ended.
Maya looked at Arthur.
“Peter was involved.”
“But maybe not in the way we thought.”
The fourth file was worse.
Isabella again.
This time with another man.
His voice was distorted.
“You need the boy declared dead before the audit opens.”
Isabella said, “Hale will catch it.”
The man replied:
“Then make Hale look responsible.”
Arthur froze.
David.
Maya leaned closer.
The unknown man continued.
“Peter is weak. If he panics, let him run.”
Isabella asked, “And Arthur?”
The man laughed.
“Arthur trusts anyone who wears a good suit.”
Arthur looked away.
That one hurt because it was true.
Serena rewound the recording.
“Do you recognize the voice?”
Arthur shook his head.
David listened twice.
Then once more.
His face slowly changed.
Arthur noticed.
“You know him.”
David didn’t answer.
“David.”
He looked up.
“I think I do.”
“Who?”
David swallowed.
“My former partner.”
Arthur frowned.
“Who?”
“Richard Vale.”
Maya looked at Isabella’s booking photograph on Serena’s tablet.
“Vale?”
David nodded.
“Her older brother.”
Arthur stared at him.
“I was told Isabella was an only child.”
“So was I.”
Serena immediately started searching databases.
Within minutes, she found a Richard Vale.
Attorney.
Disbarred twelve years earlier for client theft.
Reported dead five years ago in Mexico.
Maya stared at the screen.
“Reported dead?”
Serena nodded.
Arthur almost laughed.
“What is it with these people and fake deaths?”
Serena kept scrolling.
Then stopped.
Richard Vale had used another name after disbarment.
A name Arthur recognized.
He stepped closer to the screen.
“No.”
Serena looked at him.
“You know him?”
Arthur stared at the photograph.
“Everyone in this city knows him.”
Richard Vale was alive.
May you like
And for the last four years, he had been serving as chief financial officer of Montgomery Holdings under the name Richard Voss.
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