Chapter 8 - The Woman on the Recording
We listened in a small interview room at the hospital.
A mechanic’s shop hummed in the background.
Metal clinked.
Then my father’s voice.
“I’m not signing this.”
I covered my mouth.
For three years, I had been afraid I was forgetting how he sounded.
Frank answered.
“The car needs to go.”
“Then put him in another one.”
“That’s not your decision.”
“The brake line didn’t rub through. Somebody cut it.”
A pause.
Then a woman spoke.
“Daniel. How much?”
Vanessa.
Younger, less polished, but unmistakable.
My fingers dug into the table.
Dad gave a short, disgusted breath.
“Get out of my shop.”
“You have a wife,” Vanessa said. “A daughter.”
“Don’t.”
“Then stop making this difficult.”
The recording ended with the scrape of a chair.
Luca didn’t move.
Ruiz gave us a moment before speaking.
“The file metadata puts this two days before the crash. We’ll need to authenticate everything.”
Michael stared at the wall.
“I didn’t know her voice was on it.”
“Did you listen?” I asked.
“No.”
I wanted to hit him.
Instead, I stood and walked to the window until I could speak without shouting.
“You let him go home.”
Michael’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“You let my father think you were helping.”
“Yes.”
Ruiz’s phone rang.
She stepped into the corridor.
Luca looked at Michael.
“How long have you known Vanessa?”
“Four years.”
“She told me you introduced us by chance.”
“It wasn’t chance.”
Something in Luca’s face went flat.
Michael rubbed both hands over his eyes.
“Frank said she could get close to you. Find out what you knew. Then she stayed.”
“For three years.”
“Yes.”
Luca looked at the photograph still sealed in its plastic sleeve.
Two years of marriage.
Eighteen months of engagement.
I watched him work through the overlap.
Ruiz returned.
“Vanessa’s attorney says she’ll cooperate.”
Luca laughed without humor.
“Of course she will.”
“She claims Frank planned the crash. She says he forced her to help.”
“And you believe that?” I asked.
“I believe she wants something.”
Ruiz’s expression sharpened.
“She says she can prove who killed your father.”
May you like
I felt my knees weaken.
Then Ruiz added, “But she’ll only tell Hannah.”
