Chapter 14 - Forty-Three Minutes
The recording had never been in the metal box.
Angela said my mother hid it somewhere in her house before the ambulance arrived.
David searched for years and never found it.
“Why are you telling me now?” I asked.
“Because Victor threatened Tyler.”
There it was.
Not remorse.
Fear.
Still, fear could tell the truth.
Angela described my mother’s last morning at home.
Margaret had confronted David about Tyler, the trust, and the old mineral-rights transfer.
David begged her for time.
She refused.
He crushed two prescription sleep tablets into her tea, intending to make her groggy while he searched her office.
Angela brought the cup.
My mother drank part of it, became weak, then collapsed.
David did not call immediately.
He searched the house first.
Forty-three minutes.
Forty-three minutes while my mother lay on the floor.
Ortiz asked, “Did he cause the stroke?”
Angela shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
But he had delayed help.
That was enough to reopen everything.
We searched my mother’s old house, now owned by a retired teacher.
The woman let us in after Ortiz explained.
My mother’s office had become a sewing room.
I remembered her tapping the underside of the desk whenever she was thinking.
The desk itself was gone.
“Where did it go?” I asked.
The owner pointed toward the garage.
“Previous owner left it. I use it for paint cans.”
We found the recorder taped beneath the bottom drawer.
The batteries were dead.
The memory card was intact.
Back at the station, a technician copied the file.
My mother’s voice came first.
Then David’s.
Give me until Rebecca’s birthday. After that, I can fix everything.
My mother answered, You mean steal everything.
A chair scraped.
Then David said something that turned my blood cold.
If you tell Rebecca about Tyler, Angela loses her too.
My mother laughed once.
You already lost her. She just doesn’t know it yet.
Then came a crash.
May you like
And David’s voice, much closer.
Angela, don’t call yet.
