Chapter 11 - MY FATHER'S VOICE
Michael told Collins where to find the tape.
A bank box under Margaret's maiden name.
Inside:
One cassette.
One letter.
One photograph of Margaret holding baby Michael.
The tape was damaged but playable.
Margaret's voice came first.
"You said Robert would leave."
Evelyn:
"He won't."
Then my father's voice.
"Margaret, lower your voice."
"You gave Charles my papers."
Robert:
"I was trying to calm this down."
Margaret:
"You took my son."
Robert had not simply accepted Michael after Margaret died.
He had been involved before.
Evelyn shouting:
"Give me the bottle."
Margaret:
"Get away from me."
Robert:
"Stop."
Then the tape cut.
But enough to establish Robert and Evelyn were both present near the end.
My father had lied to police.
So had Evelyn.
Collins reopened the 1996 case formally.
Margaret wrote:
If Robert chooses his marriage over Michael, do not let Evelyn pretend she saved him.
She knows what Charles did.
What did Evelyn do?
Estate fraud?
Then police reexamined old medical records.
Margaret had prescriptions for pain medication after a car accident.
The fatal pills came from a different prescription bottle.
Prescribed to Charles Hart.
Someone brought Charles's medication to Margaret's apartment.
Evelyn.
Charles.
Peter.
Robert, possibly.
Then Detective Collins received forensic results from the injector found in Evelyn's car.
Evelyn's.
Michael's.
But the plastic cap had a smear of chocolate ganache containing peanut protein.
The injector had been handled near the contaminated dessert.
Not simply taken from my jacket earlier.
Evelyn likely carried it while switching plates.
Then another item from her car tested positive.
A luncheon napkin with peanut residue.
Wrapped around the injector.
She had taken the emergency medication and the evidence from the dessert together.
Then Evelyn's lawyer requested a proffer.
Collins warned us:
"People offer truth when truth becomes cheaper than silence."
Evelyn entered the interview room wearing jail clothing instead of plum silk.
She looked at me through the glass.
"Michael stabbed himself."
Collins raised an eyebrow.
"No."
Evelyn smiled faintly.
"Then ask Peter who he hired."
Peter.
Evelyn claimed Peter had spent decades protecting Charles's reputation.
If Michael found the tape, Peter would lose everything.
Collins said:
"Peter was attacked too."
Evelyn's smile disappeared.
For the first time, she seemed genuinely confused.
Then she whispered:
May you like
"Robert had another son."
I stopped breathing.
