Chapter 3 - The Man They Were Told to Hate)
Laura waited until after midnight.
Rick was asleep upstairs.
Noah was in Emily's room with the television playing quietly enough to hide their voices.
Laura locked the kitchen door.
Then she sat across from Emily.
For a long time she said nothing.
Emily waited.
Finally Laura spoke.
"Your grandfather did not abandon us."
Emily felt something inside her crack.
"You told me he did."
"I lied."
"Why?"
"Because I believed a lie first."
Laura pressed both hands together.
"After your father died, I wasn't functioning. I barely slept. I forgot appointments. I forgot meals. You were nine and trying to take care of Noah because I couldn't."
Emily remembered.
She remembered cereal for dinner.
Bills piled beside the microwave.
Laura crying inside the shower so the children would not hear.
"I met Rick through your father's company," Laura continued. "He worked in accounting. He helped me with insurance forms and bank paperwork after the accident."
"He was Dad's friend?"
"No."
Laura's voice hardened.
"That was another lie."
Emily leaned forward.
"What happened?"
"Your father had become suspicious of financial irregularities at the company. Money was disappearing from client accounts. Not enough at once to attract attention. Small amounts moved through several shell accounts."
"Rick?"
"I didn't know then."
"But Dad did."
Laura nodded.
"A week before your father's accident, he called my father."
"Grandpa Richard."
"Yes."
"What did he tell him?"
"I don't know everything. My father was an attorney. He had also been a judge years earlier. James trusted him."
Laura looked toward the backyard.
"James told him he had found evidence of embezzlement."
Emily's mind returned to the hidden compartment.
The recorder.
"Did Dad hide the evidence?"
"Some of it."
"In the shed?"
Laura looked sharply at her.
"You opened it."
Emily said nothing.
Laura stood.
"You opened the compartment?"
"Yes."
"What did you find?"
"A photograph. Dad's glasses. A recorder."
Laura gripped the chair.
"Did you listen to it?"
"No."
"Thank God."
"Why?"
"Because if Rick knows that recorder is still there..."
Laura stopped.
Emily stood.
"He already knows I went near the shed."
Laura's face changed.
"We need to move it."
"Tonight?"
"Now."
They crossed the backyard with flashlights covered by their fingers.
Laura entered the reverse code.
6418.
The hidden compartment clicked.
She removed the recorder.
For several seconds she simply held it.
Then tears appeared in her eyes.
"I thought he found this years ago."
"Who?"
"Rick."
Laura opened the plastic.
The device still had power.
Emily stared at her.
"Play it."
"No."
"Mom."
"Emily, you don't understand."
"Then let me."
Laura looked at her daughter.
Something surrendered.
She pressed play.
Static filled the tiny speaker.
Then James Carter's voice came through.
Emily stopped breathing.
She had forgotten exactly how her father's voice sounded.
Memory returned instantly.
Warm.
Measured.
Slightly amused even when serious.
"Richard, if you're hearing this, I couldn't deliver the records myself."
Laura covered her mouth.
James continued.
"Dawson knows I'm looking into the transfers. I don't know how much he knows. I copied the accounts and put the originals somewhere he won't think to search."
A pause.
Then James said something that changed the entire room.
"If anything happens to me, do not let him near Laura or the kids."
Emily looked at her mother.
Laura was crying silently.
The recording continued.
"Laura trusts people because she expects them to be better than they are. That's one of the reasons I love her. Protect that if you can. Protect Emily. Protect Noah."
There was another burst of static.
Then Richard Hale's younger voice answered.
"James, go to the police."
"I need proof."
"You have enough."
"Not for the bigger transfers."
"Then walk away."
James laughed once.
"You know I can't."
The recording ended.
Emily stared at Laura.
"Rick knew Dad was investigating him."
"Yes."
"And Dad died a week later."
"Yes."
"Was it really an accident?"
Laura closed her eyes.
"The official investigation said it was."
"That isn't what I asked."
"I don't know."
Emily felt rage rising so quickly she had to grip the table.
"And you married him."
Laura flinched.
"I didn't know."
"You married the man Dad warned Grandpa about."
"I did not hear this recording until six weeks ago."
Emily stared at her.
"Six weeks?"
Laura nodded.
"How?"
"I found another tape."
"Where?"
"Inside the leg of your father's old desk."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Laura looked toward the hallway.
"Because Rick monitors the bank accounts. He monitors my phone records. He knows when I leave work. He knows who calls the house."
"Then call Grandpa."
"I did."
Emily froze.
"When?"
"Thirty seven days ago."
"What did he say?"
Laura stood and walked toward the pantry.
She removed a cereal box.
Inside was a cheap prepaid phone.
Emily stared at it.
Laura held it like something dangerous.
"He said he had been waiting eight years for me to call."
Emily felt tears sting her eyes.
"Where is he?"
"Closer than Rick thinks."
"Does he know about Noah?"
Laura's face tightened.
"Not everything."
"Tell him."
"I will."
"When?"
Laura looked at the recorder.
"When we find the original ledger."
"What ledger?"
"The proof your father said he hid."
Emily thought of Noah's drawing.
The green room.
The number.
"Rick has been asking Noah about a box."
Laura looked up sharply.
"What?"
"He took him to the shed."
"When?"
"I don't know."
Laura's fear changed into fury.
It was the first time Emily had ever seen it.
"Why would Noah know where the ledger is?"
Emily thought of the drawing.
"Maybe Dad told Grandpa."
Laura shook her head.
"Your father never told anyone where he hid it."
"Then maybe Grandpa knows."
Laura looked toward the prepaid phone.
She turned it on.
There was one unread message.
Laura opened it.
Her face went white.
Emily took the phone.
The message contained only seven words.
Do not trust the green room anymore.
May you like
Below it was a name.
Richard.
