Chapter 8 - The Voicemail with No Voice
Charles was not arrested that day.Judge Hart referred the matter to the district attorney, but the transfer agreement remained under examination, and Charles’s attorney insisted that Devon had acted alone.“He’s buying time,” Samantha said.Victoria sat in the NICU family room with Noah’s photograph on her phone. “He’s been buying time my entire life.”Courtney sat across from her, twisting a paper cup between her hands.“You don’t have to stay,” Victoria said.“If I leave, Charles will find me.”“That isn’t my responsibility.”“I know.”“Then why are you here?”Courtney looked through the glass at Noah. “Because I know what it feels like to be trapped by someone who tells you the cage is protection.”Victoria studied her. “Charles recruited you.”“He married me.”“You were twenty-three.”“He said he admired my ambition.”“You were working at a coffee shop.”“He said that was proof I understood people.”Victoria almost smiled, but the feeling died quickly.“He said I could help run the company,” Courtney continued. “Then he gave me documents I didn’t understand and told me where to sign.”“You could have asked a lawyer.”“He controlled my bank account.”“You still helped him.”“Yes.”Courtney’s honesty left no room for comfort.Samantha entered. “The forensic team recovered audio from Lucas’s phone.”“What does it say?” Victoria asked.“Nothing.”“Nothing?”“It’s a voicemail. Three minutes long. There is no voice, only background noise.”Samantha played it.At first Victoria heard static. Then a truck backing alarm. A train horn. Metal clanging.She sat straighter.“That’s the garage,” she said.“Yes.”“There’s a clock chime.”The recording continued. A door slammed. Someone whispered, too faint to understand. Then a sharp electronic beep.The voicemail ended.“Why would Lucas leave that?” Courtney asked.“Maybe he didn’t,” Samantha said.Victoria looked at her. “You said his phone sent it to your office.”“It arrived after the crash.”“When?”“9:26 p.m.”“Eight minutes after he died.”“Which means someone had his phone.”Detective Bell entered. “The timestamp may be manipulated.”“By whom?” Victoria asked.“We’re checking.”Samantha replayed the recording. “The beep repeats every forty seconds.”“A security alarm?” Courtney asked.“No,” Victoria said. “Lucas’s watch.”She remembered the sound from their kitchen. Every hour, Lucas’s watch gave a soft double beep when his heart rate rose during a workout.“He wore a medical alert watch,” she said. “It transmitted his pulse.”Bell leaned toward the phone. “Could the watch have synced with the vehicle?”“It synced with his phone.”Samantha called a digital analyst, who arrived with equipment. They isolated the beep and compared it to Lucas’s watch records.“It’s an emergency alert,” the analyst said. “Triggered manually.”Victoria’s mouth went dry.“Lucas sent the voicemail while he was in danger.”“Or someone triggered the watch,” Bell said.The analyst enhanced the whisper.A single phrase emerged.“Blue…wall…not safe.”Victoria stood. “The nursery.”“He told you to search there,” Samantha said.“But he said it wasn’t safe.”“Maybe the key was a trap.”Victoria remembered the lights going out when she found it. Charles’s sudden panic. The faint clicking inside the wall.“There’s something else behind the nursery wall.”Bell’s phone rang. He listened, then said, “The court-appointed examiner found a hidden account.”“Where?” Victoria asked.“In Luxembourg.”“Whose?”“The account holder is Lucas Gallagher.”Victoria felt relief, then suspicion. “How much?”“Thirty-two million dollars.”Courtney dropped her cup.Samantha looked at Victoria. “Lucas never mentioned that.”“Could Charles access it?”“Not without your signature.”Victoria remembered the two forged agreements.“Then that’s what Charles is after.”The analyst stared at his screen. “There’s a new file on the phone.”“Open it,” Bell said.The file contained a photograph of Victoria sleeping in the hospital.It had been taken from inside the room.Under the photograph was a message.YOU FOUND THE WRONG WALL.
