Chapter 12 - Behind the Portrait
Police searched the mansion.
The portrait was found in a storage room.
My husband stood in the painting with one hand in his coat pocket.
He hated that portrait.
Said it made him look like a banker.
Behind the frame was a shallow compartment.
Empty.
Someone had already taken the papers.
Security footage answered who.
Thomas.
The night before Daniel threw me out.
He entered the study at 2:13 a.m.
Stayed six minutes.
Left carrying a flat envelope.
Thomas had realized Daniel was suspicious.
He was cleaning evidence.
But he made one mistake.
He did not know about Henry’s warehouse copies.
Those were enough to reopen old financial investigations.
Then investigators found something else.
A voice recorder taped beneath the portrait backing.
Henry’s recorder.
The batteries were dead.
The memory card was not.
One recording.
Henry and Thomas arguing.
Thomas:
“You can’t cut me out now.”
Henry:
“I should have done it years ago.”
Thomas:
“Rose won’t understand any of this.”
Henry:
“She doesn’t need to understand fraud to know when someone is stealing from her.”
I closed my eyes.
Henry’s voice filled the room.
Alive again for thirty seconds.
Then Thomas said:
“If you die, Daniel will bring me back.”
Henry answered:
“No. My son is smarter than you think.”
Daniel covered his face.
The recording ended.
Then another file appeared.
Different date.
Vanessa’s voice.
Recent.
She had found the recorder months earlier and recorded over part of the memory by accident.
Her voice:
“Thomas, once Rose is declared incompetent, the house moves cleanly.”
Thomas answered:
“And Daniel?”
Vanessa:
May you like
“I’m handling him.”
That sentence destroyed every remaining defense she had.
