Chapter 6 - Claire's Voice
The recording lasted eleven minutes.
It felt like eleven years.
Claire accused Vanessa and Elliot Price of routing company money through three shell consulting firms. Marcus had approved false medical research invoices to make the transfers look legitimate.
Vanessa laughed.
"You think Daniel is going to choose you over me?"
Claire answered, "I think Daniel is going to choose the truth once I force him to see it."
My stomach turned.
Then Marcus said, "This is getting out of control."
Claire's breathing quickened. "No. This is already out of control. I copied everything."
There was a struggle. Furniture scraped. Vanessa cursed.
Then a heavy crack.
Claire gasped.
The sound that followed was worse--a body hitting wood, then the floor.
Noah clamped both hands over his mouth.
I stopped the recording.
"You don't have to hear the rest."
"Yes, I do."
"Noah--"
"She's my mom."
So I pressed play.
Marcus said, "She's conscious. Claire? Can you hear me?"
Claire moaned.
Vanessa was crying now. "I didn't mean--"
"Shut up," Marcus snapped. "Both of you. Elliot, get the car."
A fourth voice, distant but unmistakable, answered, "On it."
Elliot.
The recording cut off.
No confession. No body. No explanation for the next thirteen months.
But it was enough for Ruiz to get warrants moving.
At seven the next morning, Marcus called me.
"You found the card."
I looked at Ruiz across my living room. She motioned for me to keep him talking.
"Where is my sister?"
"I can tell you what happened after the recording stopped."
"Tell me now."
"Not on the phone. My clinic. Underground parking. Ten minutes."
Ruiz shook her head.
I went anyway, with police two minutes behind me.
Marcus stood beside his black sedan under a fluorescent light. He looked twenty years older than he had at the last board meeting.
"Claire was alive for thirty-six hours after that fall," he said.
I grabbed his coat. "Where?"
"Your father's lake house."
"Why didn't you take her to a hospital?"
His face collapsed.
"Because she woke up."
"That doesn't make sense."
"It will."
A sharp pop echoed through the garage.
May you like
Marcus jerked in my hands.
Blood spread across his shirt.
