Chapter 9 - The Recording Beneath the Piano)
The bullet missed Emily by less than eighteen inches.
Daniel pulled her from the bed.
Ava dropped behind the wall.
The officer outside rushed in.
Hospital alarms sounded.
A second shot never came.
The sniper disappeared.
Within minutes, Emily was moved to an interior intensive care room.
Detective Ortiz ordered the entire floor locked down.
Ava stood in the hallway, shaking.
Daniel walked toward her.
“You saw it.”
“The lens.”
“You saved her again.”
Ava looked at him.
“This isn’t going to stop.”
“No.”
“So we stop it.”
Ortiz approached.
“The lake house is being secured.”
“We need the recording,” Daniel said.
“I know.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“My wife is being shot at.”
“Which is why you are staying somewhere controlled.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Detective.”
Ortiz stared him down.
“You are not the only person who wants answers.”
Ava said, “Let me go.”
Daniel turned.
“No.”
“Emily told us where it is.”
“You’re already a target.”
“So are you.”
Ortiz considered.
Finally she said, “You both stay here. I’ll send a team.”
Two hours later the team reported the piano bench was empty.
Daniel stared at Ortiz.
“They found the false bottom?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Nothing.”
Emily insisted the recorder had been there the morning before her crash.
Someone had removed it.
Only four people knew Emily had visited the lake house.
Emily.
Daniel, who learned afterward.
Ava.
And Victoria.
Daniel walked into Victoria’s protected room.
“Where is it?”
Victoria looked up.
“What?”
“The recording.”
Her expression changed.
Daniel saw it.
“You took it.”
“I moved it.”
“Why?”
“To keep it safe.”
“From who?”
“Everyone.”
“Where?”
Victoria looked toward the officer outside.
“I need to speak privately.”
Daniel laughed.
“No.”
“Please.”
“No more secrets.”
Victoria lowered her voice.
“I did not try to kill Emily.”
“Then prove it.”
“I found the recorder after she left the estate.”
“How did you know she was there?”
“Security notification.”
“You told us the house was empty.”
“It was.”
“Except you monitored it.”
Victoria nodded.
“Where is the recording?”
“In Richard’s mausoleum.”
Ava blinked.
“You hid it in a cemetery?”
“It was the only place Julian never went.”
Daniel stared at her.
“My wife nearly died because everyone in this family thinks secrets are protection.”
Victoria’s eyes filled.
“You don’t know what Elias can do.”
“Then tell me.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
Victoria looked toward Ava.
“Because the moment you know who he is, he will know you know.”
Ava said, “He already threatened my mother.”
Victoria’s expression shifted.
“What did he say?”
Ava showed her the message.
Victoria read it twice.
Then whispered, “That isn’t Elias.”
Ava frowned.
“How do you know?”
“He never threatens families.”
“What?”
“He threatens the person directly.”
Daniel stared.
“You sound like you know him very well.”
Victoria lowered the phone.
“Elias believes fear is most effective when it is personal. He would have told Ava exactly how she would die.”
Ava felt cold.
“Then who sent that?”
Victoria looked toward Daniel.
“Someone who knew her brother’s medical history.”
“Vale?”
“Possibly.”
“Julian?”
“Possibly.”
“Or you.”
Victoria did not answer.
Ortiz entered.
“We found a vehicle matching the one used after Vale escaped.”
“Where?”
“Abandoned near Saint Michael Cemetery.”
Victoria stood abruptly.
Daniel’s face changed.
“Richard’s mausoleum.”
They drove under police escort.
Saint Michael Cemetery stretched across acres of winter grass and old trees.
Richard Whitmore’s mausoleum stood near the eastern wall.
The door was open.
Ortiz entered first.
No one inside.
A stone crypt bore Richard’s name.
Daniel searched beneath the flower shelf.
Victoria said, “Behind the lower plaque.”
Ava pressed the edge.
The plaque moved.
A small compartment opened.
Empty.
Victoria staggered backward.
“No.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You said it was here.”
“It was.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Ava noticed something on the stone floor.
A tiny red light.
She crouched.
A digital voice recorder.
Crushed.
Daniel picked it up.
The casing was broken.
The memory card remained inside.
Ortiz placed it into an evidence bag.
“Maybe recoverable.”
Ava looked deeper into the compartment.
“There’s something else.”
A folded note.
Daniel opened it.
Only one sentence was written.
YOU KEEP LOOKING IN COFFINS WHEN YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING AT THE PEOPLE WHO SIGN THE DEATH CERTIFICATES.
Below it was a list of twelve names.
All doctors.
One was Simon Vale.
Another name made Victoria gasp.
Dr. Samuel Brooks.
Ava stopped breathing.
“That’s my father.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You said your father was dead.”
“He is.”
“When?”
Ava stared at the name.
“Three months before Marcus’s accident.”
Victoria whispered, “Are you sure?”
Ava looked at her.
“My father died in a boating accident.”
Ortiz asked, “Was the body recovered?”
May you like
Ava slowly shook her head.
“No.”
