Chapter 10 - Vanessa’s Last Recording
The smashed phone looked useless.
It wasn’t.
Technicians recovered an audio file recorded automatically after the device detected a hard impact.
We listened in a police interview room.
First came traffic noise.
Then Vanessa’s voice.
“You said nobody would get hurt.”
A man answered.
Lucas.
“You kept her seven months. Don’t pretend you care now.”
Vanessa started crying.
“I was supposed to hold her until the signatures were done. Voss changed the plan.”
A car door slammed.
Then another voice.
Graham Voss.
Calm. Almost bored.
“You both became liabilities.”
Vanessa said, “Daniel found her.”
“I know.”
“What happens now?”
A pause.
Then Voss answered, “Now we finish before Claire talks.”
The recording ended with Vanessa screaming.
Claire went rigid beside me.
“Finish what?”
Ortiz immediately contacted the hospital security supervisor.
Before she finished the call, the lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then went out.
Emergency lights glowed red in the hallway.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Emma was asleep in Claire’s room.
I ran.
A nurse shouted behind me.
“Sir!”
I ignored her.
When I reached Claire’s room, the door was open.
Emma was gone.
The bed beside Claire’s had been empty because Claire was with me in the interview room.
On Emma’s pillow lay her stuffed rabbit.
Beside it was a folded piece of paper.
Three words were written in black marker.
BRING THE FILES.
Claire made a sound behind me that I will hear for the rest of my life.
“No.”
I grabbed the note.
On the back was an address.
An abandoned Mercer warehouse outside town.
My father’s first distribution building.
May you like
And beneath the address was a time.
4:00 A.M.
