Chapter 9 - grace's last twenty minutes)
Police found Lydia's vehicle near the Savannah River.
Empty.
Her handbag remained inside.
There was no sign of Lydia.
For twelve hours, everyone feared she was dead.
Then at four thirty in the afternoon, a patrol officer found her walking barefoot along an access road six miles away.
She had bruises on her wrists.
Her dress was torn.
But she was alive.
Robert met her at the hospital.
"Charles?"
She nodded.
"He took me from the house."
"Where?"
"An abandoned warehouse."
"Why?"
"The folder."
Robert stared at her.
"You said it was stolen."
"I lied."
"Again."
"I was trying to protect Grace."
"Grace is dead."
Lydia closed her eyes.
"I know."
"Where is the folder?"
"Safe."
Robert's patience disappeared.
"You have three frightened children in my house. Your brother helped plan something involving their mother. Stop protecting secrets."
Lydia began sobbing.
Then she finally told the truth.
Grace had given her a folder the night before her death.
Inside was a handwritten statement, copies of financial records and a blood sample.
Robert froze.
"A blood sample?"
"Grace had gone to a private clinic two days earlier."
The missing forty-eight hours.
Grace suspected someone had tampered with medication she occasionally took for anxiety and sleep.
She had one tablet analyzed.
The laboratory discovered it contained a cardiovascular drug that was not prescribed to her.
A drug capable of causing dangerous heart rhythm abnormalities in sufficient amounts.
Robert sat slowly.
"Where is the report?"
"In the folder."
"Where?"
Lydia looked directly at him.
"Grace made me promise not to keep it at home."
She had hidden the folder in a safe deposit box under a false business name.
Charles had discovered the box existed but not which bank held it.
That was why he abducted her.
"He kept asking for the bank."
"Did you tell him?"
"No."
Robert exhaled.
The folder still existed.
Lydia continued.
"There is something else."
Grace had been recording a voice memo when she became ill on the night she died.
Lydia knew because Grace called her earlier that evening and said she intended to confront Ethan about the altered medication.
Robert stared at her.
"She confronted him?"
"I think so."
"But there was no recording found."
"Maybe there was."
Lydia looked toward the door.
"Grace's phone automatically backed up audio to our charity's shared server."
Robert immediately called Martin.
Within two hours a digital forensic specialist was searching the account.
At 9:18 p.m., they found an audio file recorded the night Grace died.
Duration: twenty minutes and eleven seconds.
Robert could barely press play.
The recording began in Grace's bedroom.
Her breathing was audible.
She sounded nervous.
A door opened.
Ethan entered.
Grace asked:
"Did you change my pills?"
Silence.
Then Ethan said:
"What are you talking about?"
Grace told him she had laboratory results.
Ethan's voice changed.
He told her she had become paranoid.
Grace said she had copies stored outside the house.
Then another voice entered the room.
Male.
Older.
Charles Carrington.
Robert felt ice in his veins.
Grace sounded surprised.
"Charles?"
Charles told her to calm down.
Grace asked why he was there.
Then she said something no one expected.
"You gave Ethan the medication."
Charles answered.
"No."
Grace replied:
"You paid Bell."
Silence.
Then Ethan began shouting.
He accused Grace of destroying everything.
Charles told him to shut up.
Grace said she was going to police in the morning.
Charles answered:
"No, you're not."
The room listening to the recording became completely still.
A struggle followed.
Objects moved.
Grace gasped.
Then Ethan shouted:
"What did you give her?"
Charles answered:
"Nothing she hasn't taken before."
Robert stopped the audio.
Sophia was not in the room.
Thank God.
Jennings stared at him.
"We have enough."
But Robert shook his head.
"Keep listening."
The recording continued.
Grace's breathing became irregular.
Ethan panicked.
"We need an ambulance."
Charles said:
"If you call now, everything ends."
"What are you talking about?"
"She has a heart condition. You said so yourself."
"Charles."
"Wait."
Robert felt physically ill.
For almost six minutes, the two men argued while Grace struggled to breathe.
Ethan wanted to call emergency services.
Charles kept stopping him.
Finally Ethan did call.
But by then Grace's voice had gone silent.
The ambulance arrived nine minutes later.
She died before reaching the hospital.
Robert sat motionless.
Ethan had not necessarily administered the fatal substance.
But he had watched his wife dying while protecting himself.
Charles had prevented help.
Both had chosen themselves over Grace.
Jennings stood.
"I am issuing homicide warrants."
Robert looked at the sealed envelope still unopened at home.
Grace had said it contained the name of the person with the most to lose.
Now Robert believed he already knew that name.
Charles Carrington.
But when he returned home and finally examined the envelope, he noticed something written across the back.
Open only after you know what happened during my final twenty minutes.
The condition had been fulfilled.
Robert broke the red wax.
Inside was a single photograph.
He stared at it.
May you like
Then called Sophia into the room.
Because the person pictured beside Charles was someone none of them had suspected.
