Chapter 5 - A Voice on the Phone
The recording changed the case from elder abuse to something older and darker. Rowan moved Andreas, Elena, and June into a motel while investigators searched the property. Dr. Patel objected to the motel's narrow bathroom and uneven carpet, but Elena refused every suggestion that involved leaving town.
“She wants to stay near the house,” Patel said.
“The house may be dangerous.”
“So may the motel. Give her a choice.”
Andreas placed two cards on the table: HOME and MOTEL. Elena stared at them, then pushed HOME toward him.
“All right,” he said. “Home, when the police clear it.”
Rowan returned at midnight. “The box contained financial records and an old medical bracelet. No remains.”
“Mara’s?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“What happened to her?”
“The recording doesn’t tell us.”
“It tells us my father knew she was in danger.”
“And it tells us your mother may have known more than she could report.”
Rowan placed a transcript on the table. “The unfamiliar voice may belong to Denton Price. He worked security for Holt. He has convictions for intimidation and assault.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
Andreas laughed once, without humor. “Of course.”
“Died three years ago in a highway crash.”
“Convenient.”
“Convenience is not proof.”
The motel phone rang. Andreas answered before the second ring.
“The box was never supposed to be found,” Marina said.
“Where are you?”
“You sound like your father.”
“Don’t compare me to him.”
“Then stop pretending you’re better. You left your mother alone with me because it was easier than facing what she knew.”
Andreas gripped the receiver. “You hurt her.”
“Yes.”
The blunt admission stunned him.
“Why?”
“Because she kept looking at the fence. Because she knew where the records were. Because I needed to know whether she remembered Mara.”
“You could have asked.”
“I did. She smiled at me.”
Elena, sitting across the room, began tapping the table. Slow, deliberate taps.
“You are going to tell me everything,” Andreas said.
“No. I’m going to tell you one thing. Your father didn’t die from a heart attack.”
The line went quiet.
“What did he die from?”
“Fear.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is when a man realizes the person he trusted most has decided to save herself.”
The call ended.
Rowan took the receiver from his hand. “Did she record this?”
“I don’t know.”
“She wanted you to hear it.”
Elena pushed the letter board toward him. Her hand trembled as she spelled a name.
V. I. C. T. O. R.
Then she spelled another.
M. A. R. A.
Then she pointed to the word NO from the previous page and shook her head.
Andreas understood only one thing: Marina's story was not the story Elena was trying to tell.
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At dawn, Rowan received a call from the state medical examiner. A review of Victor Vale's preserved tissue had found an unexplained sedative in his blood.
The sedative had never been prescribed.
