Chapter 9 - The Second Phone
Victor called Lily immediately.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
His pulse hammered.
Then she picked up.
"Victor?"
"Where are you?"
"Nursery. Why?"
"Did Grant call you?"
A pause.
"Someone called from an unknown number. I didn't answer."
Victor breathed again.
"Lock the door. Do not open it for anyone except the detective outside."
"What happened?"
"Grant was at the lake house."
Victor heard Lily lock the nursery.
"Come back."
"I will."
The detectives traced Grant's phone, but whoever had left it behind had removed the SIM card.
Victor returned to Olivia's safe and looked again.
The words check the second phone bothered him.
Olivia had owned a personal phone and a company phone. Both were returned after the crash.
Then Victor remembered her old habit of hiding emergency cash inside the hollow base of a bronze horse statue.
He lifted the statue.
Nothing.
He turned it over.
A small compartment opened.
Inside was a compact black phone wrapped in plastic.
The battery was dead.
Police bagged it, but Victor insisted they charge it on site before removing it.
When the screen finally lit, there were forty-three voice memos.
Most were Olivia dictating notes about foundation accounts.
The final recording was different.
Wind. A car door. Olivia breathing quickly.
Then Serena's voice.
"Give me the drive."
Olivia answered, "Get away from my car."
Grant said, "Let's not make this ugly."
Serena laughed. "It's already ugly. She knows."
Victor gripped the edge of the desk.
Olivia's voice came again. "Victor will find out."
Serena replied, "Victor believes what makes his life comfortable."
The sentence cut deeper than Victor expected because, again, it was true.
The recording ended with a struggle, a door slamming, and Olivia starting the engine.
Then one final sentence from Grant, distant but clear:
"Follow her."
Victor stared at the phone.
One detective said, "This changes the case."
Victor nodded.
Then another officer entered carrying a sealed evidence envelope.
"We found this taped under the desk."
Inside was a photograph of Serena and a man Victor didn't recognize.
They were standing outside a clinic.
On the back Olivia had written:
SERENA + DR. PIKE. ASK WHY ETHAN'S TEST RESULTS WERE CHANGED.
Victor looked up.
Dr. Pike.
The pediatric consultant.
May you like
The same doctor who had written the false bruise reports.
And when police checked his clinic, they discovered he had disappeared that morning.
