Chapter 13 - THE RECORDING
The phone survived.
Barely.
The screen was shattered.
The casing was bent.
But the internal storage remained intact.
By midnight, federal technicians recovered several audio files.
Daniel sat in a temporary hotel room with Elena and the kids.
The government had placed them there under protection.
Mateo slept with the lights on.
Sofia refused to sleep at all.
Daniel stood by the window.
Elena came behind him.
“You need to sit down.”
“I’ve been sitting for three months.”
“That’s not funny.”
“I wasn’t joking.”
She touched his back.
Daniel flinched.
Not because she hurt him.
Because sudden touch still made his body prepare for a guard.
Elena noticed.
Neither of them said anything.
That hurt more.
“Are we going to be okay?” she asked.
Daniel looked at their reflection in the dark window.
“I don’t know.”
“At least you’re home.”
He turned.
“We don’t have a home.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No.”
His voice came out sharper than he intended.
Elena stepped back.
Daniel immediately regretted it.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re angry.”
“I’m furious.”
“At me?”
“At everybody.”
She nodded.
“Good.”
Daniel blinked.
“Good?”
“I need you angry.”
“Why?”
“Because when you’re scared, you go quiet.”
Daniel looked away.
She grabbed his face.
“I lost you for eighty-nine days.”
“I know.”
“No. Listen.”
Her voice cracked.
“I woke up every morning wondering if someone would hurt you in there. Every time my phone rang, I thought it was the jail. Every time Mateo asked when you were coming home, I lied.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Elena continued.
“So be angry. Yell. Break something cheap. But don’t disappear while you’re standing right in front of me.”
Daniel pulled her against him.
“I don’t know how to come back.”
She whispered, “Then come back slowly.”
His phone rang.
Pike.
Daniel answered.
“What?”
“We recovered audio.”
Daniel straightened.
“Wallace?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“We don’t know.”
“What’s on the recording?”
Pike hesitated.
“You need to hear it.”
Twenty minutes later, Daniel sat in a secured conference room at the hotel.
Pike pressed play.
Richard’s voice filled the room.
“Baker screwed this up.”
A second voice answered.
Evan.
The recording was weeks old.
“You said nobody would get hurt.”
Richard laughed.
“Grow up.”
Then Baker’s voice:
“Reyes won’t survive state.”
Daniel’s skin went cold.
Richard replied, “He doesn’t need to die. He just needs to become unbelievable.”
Baker: “And the wife?”
Daniel stopped the recording.
His hands shook.
“Play it.”
Pike looked at him.
“Daniel—”
“Play it.”
Pike resumed.
Richard answered:
“If she becomes a problem, scare her.”
Baker asked, “And the kids?”
Silence.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Then Richard said:
“Everybody has pressure points.”
Daniel stood so quickly the chair fell.
Pike stopped him.
“There’s more.”
“I heard enough.”
“You need the rest.”
Daniel stared.
Pike played the final minute.
Richard’s voice:
“The old Bell site is still clean?”
Baker: “Nobody goes there.”
Richard: “Good. If everything falls apart, I leave through there.”
Pike stopped the audio.
Daniel frowned.
“The old Bell site?”
Pike spread a map on the table.
“Thomas Bell owned an abandoned concrete plant outside town.”
Daniel stared at the location.
He knew it.
He had delivered material there once.
Years ago.
Pike pointed.
“We think Wallace may be hiding there.”
Daniel looked up.
“Then go.”
“We are.”
“No.”
Daniel grabbed his jacket.
“We’re going.”
Pike blocked the door.
“You’re not a cop.”
“No.”
“You have no weapon.”
“Good.”
“Daniel.”
Daniel met his eyes.
“He burned my house on my birthday.”
Pike sighed.
“That sentence alone tells me you shouldn’t come.”
Then Collins entered.
“Too late.”
She held up a radio.
“Units are already at the concrete plant.”
Pike turned.
“And?”
Collins looked at Daniel.
“They found a body.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“Who?”
Collins swallowed.
“We don’t know yet.”
Then her radio crackled.
A voice came through.
“Body identified.”
Static.
“Male, twenty-six.”
May you like
Daniel closed his eyes.
Evan.
