Chapter 9 - The Man Who Used Ethan's Voice)
The call had lasted forty-three seconds.
Jonathan played the voicemail twice.
The voice sounded like Ethan.
Not similar.
Not close.
It sounded exactly like him.
"Jonathan, it's Ethan. I need the second half of Claire's letter. Tell me where it is before Corinne gets there."
Ethan listened in disbelief.
Marcus did not.
"Voice synthesis," he said. "Good one."
Samuel frowned.
"Daniel?"
"Possibly."
Jonathan sat behind his desk looking embarrassed.
"I told him."
Ethan turned.
"You told whoever called you where the letter was?"
"I thought it was you."
"Where?"
Jonathan looked toward the bookshelf.
"Inside Claire's old case file."
Marcus searched.
The file remained.
The letter did not.
Corinne had been arrested before she reached the study.
So someone else had taken it earlier.
"Who entered today?" Marcus asked.
Jonathan thought.
"Delivery driver. Home nurse. My neighbor."
"Anyone yesterday?"
"A plumber."
Marcus began collecting names.
Ethan stared at the speaker still holding the recording of his artificial voice.
Daniel had known they would find Jonathan.
He had anticipated the letter.
He had the technology and patience to manipulate conversations.
And possibly Claire's car.
"What exactly did Claire tell you about her accident?" Ethan asked.
Jonathan looked confused.
"Nothing."
"Her video suggests someone had access to her car."
Jonathan's face paled.
"I never saw that."
"Did Daniel?"
"I don't know."
Samuel spoke.
"If Claire's death was not accidental, the police need the video immediately."
They sent it.
By afternoon, detectives reopened questions surrounding Claire's crash.
The original investigation had found no mechanical failure.
But one item caught Marcus's attention.
Claire's car had been repaired two days before the crash.
Brake sensor replacement.
The repair was performed at a private garage.
The garage had closed eight months later.
The owner?
A holding company.
The holding company traced through three layers of registration.
Final director.
Daniel Mercer.
Ethan sat silently in the police interview room as detectives explained it.
There was still no proof anyone sabotaged the car.
But coincidence had become increasingly difficult to defend.
Corinne remained in custody overnight on suspicion of fraud and evidence tampering.
The following morning, Ethan was allowed to speak to her with attorneys present.
She looked smaller without heels and perfect makeup.
But she did not look broken.
"Ethan."
He sat across from her.
"Did you know?"
"Know what?"
"That Daniel framed your father."
Corinne's face remained still.
Ethan placed a copy of Martin Vale's letter on the table.
She read the first line.
Her fingers twitched.
"No."
"Claire found proof."
"Claire manufactured proof."
"Why would she?"
"To protect her family."
"She was trying to clear your father's name."
Corinne pushed the page away.
"You're lying."
"Daniel stole the money."
"Stop."
"He used your father."
"Stop."
"Then convinced you the Shaws destroyed him."
Corinne stood so abruptly the chair scraped backward.
Her attorney told her to sit.
She ignored him.
"Claire destroyed my father."
"Claire was a teenager."
"Her mother destroyed him."
"Daniel wrote the report."
"Because your family forced"
"Daniel wrote the report, Corinne."
She stopped.
Ethan watched doubt enter her eyes.
He hated himself for feeling sympathy.
Then he remembered Maisie's bruise.
"You used my daughter."
Corinne's doubt vanished.
"You don't understand."
"I understand enough."
"No, you don't."
"You hurt a baby to manufacture evidence against me."
Her voice cracked.
"I never meant"
"You told her I would abandon her."
Corinne looked away.
"She couldn't even understand most of what I said."
"She understood enough."
Silence.
Ethan leaned forward.
"Why did Daniel need Maisie's trust?"
Corinne said nothing.
"Eighteen million isn't enough for him?"
Her eyes moved toward him.
There.
A reaction.
"He told you it was eighteen million," Ethan said.
Corinne remained silent.
"What is it really?"
Her attorney interrupted.
"My client is done."
Ethan did not look away from Corinne.
"Claire wrote that the inheritance was only half the story."
Corinne's face changed.
Her attorney stood.
"We are finished."
"What did Daniel tell you?"
Corinne whispered, "He said Claire took something that belonged to us."
"What?"
Corinne's attorney grabbed her arm.
"Do not answer."
She pulled free.
Ethan waited.
For the first time, anger toward Daniel seemed stronger than fear.
"He said your daughter is the key."
Ethan's blood ran cold.
"To what?"
"I don't know."
"Why Maisie?"
"He never told me."
"Then why were you helping him?"
Corinne laughed once.
It sounded empty.
"Because I spent thirty years believing your wife's family drove my father to his grave."
She looked down at Martin's letter.
"And because Daniel was the only person who ever told me my father was innocent."
Ethan spoke quietly.
"He knew he was innocent because Daniel was guilty."
Corinne's eyes filled.
She turned away.
As officers prepared to take her out, she stopped.
"Ethan."
He looked up.
"When we first met..."
Her voice trembled.
"That wasn't the first time I saw you."
He waited.
Corinne continued.
"I was outside the hospital the night Maisie was born."
Ethan stood.
"Why?"
Corinne's lawyer tried to stop her.
She spoke anyway.
"Daniel sent me."
"For what?"
"To confirm Claire had actually had the baby."
Ethan stared at her.
May you like
Corinne gave him one final terrified look.
"He'd been waiting for Maisie before Claire was even pregnant."
