Chapter 15 - The Recording Under the Floor
The police found Daniel’s SUV abandoned ten miles away.
No Daniel.
No Victoria.
No hard drive.
Ellis survived the night.
At the hospital, he told investigators enough to reopen the Cedar Pines case before falling asleep mid-sentence.
He had shut off the sprinkler valves under Daniel’s orders during a “pressure test.” Daniel paid him to leave them off for one night.
The fire started that night.
Ellis insisted he never knew Daniel planned it.
Grace wasn’t sure whether she believed him.
Rosa didn’t.
“People love discovering morals after the money is gone,” she said.
Emily needed surgery but was expected to recover. She asked for a lawyer before saying anything else.
Grace respected that more than she wanted to.
At dawn, she and Rosa sat in a hospital cafeteria drinking terrible coffee.
Neither spoke for several minutes.
Finally Grace said, “You were right.”
Rosa looked suspicious. “About what?”
“Following Emily alone was dumb.”
Rosa took a sip. “Yes.”
“I was also dumb.”
“Yes.”
“You could soften that.”
“No.”
Grace smiled despite herself.
Then Rosa’s smile disappeared.
“The blue box.”
“What about it?”
“Daniel took it from the floorboard.”
“Probably.”
“He wouldn’t destroy everything immediately.”
Grace stared at her.
“Why not?”
“Because he keeps leverage. On everybody.”
Grace thought of the way Daniel saved old messages, old contracts, old humiliations. He called it being prepared.
Rosa tapped one finger against the coffee cup.
“He might have copied my recordings.”
“To use against who?”
“Victoria.”
Grace sat very still.
By noon, investigators searched Daniel’s office again with a new warrant.
This time they tore up flooring, removed vents, and opened a false panel behind built-in shelves.
Nothing.
Grace walked the room slowly.
Daniel’s office looked wrong without him in it.
Too small.
She stopped near the desk.
A memory came back: Daniel kneeling one Christmas Eve, fixing a loose floor register while complaining that contractors were idiots.
He had sent Grace out for wine.
“Rosa,” she said.
Rosa looked up.
Grace pointed beneath the desk.
The vent cover had four screws.
Three were dusty.
One was clean.
An investigator removed it.
Inside the duct was a plastic sleeve containing a microcassette recorder.
Old-fashioned.
No cloud.
No password.
Just tape.
The first recording was Rosa’s voice confronting a maintenance supervisor after the fire.
The second was Ellis asking Daniel for more money.
The third began with Victoria saying, “You promised nobody would still be inside.”
Daniel answered, “They were supposed to evacuate.”
Grace closed her eyes.
Then Victoria said something else.
Something that had nothing to do with Cedar Pines.
“What are we going to do about Grace?”
A chair scraped on the recording.
Daniel said, very quietly, “Before the baby comes, she signs the transfer.”
Victoria replied, “And if she won’t?”
There was a long pause.
Daniel said, “Then we use the tracks.”
The tape clicked off.
Everyone in the room looked at Grace.
May you like
She put one hand over her stomach.
“What transfer?” she asked.
