Chapter 15 - The Man Who Looked Away
They met Voss in the parking garage of a closed movie theater. Naomi insisted June and Mara come with her. She no longer believed in secret meetings without witnesses.
Voss stood beside an old pickup with the silver frame wrapped in a towel. He looked worse than he had at the gala.
"I should've done this three years ago," he said.
"Yes," Naomi answered. She didn't soften it for him.
He handed over the frame. Its cardboard backing had been pried loose. Inside lay a folded piece of thermal paper, the kind that comes out of a small receipt printer. It contained time stamps, door numbers, and a long series of authorization codes.
"Your mother took a printout from the security desk," Voss said. "She folded it behind her picture before the fire. I saw her do it. I told myself I was keeping her safe when I promised Vanessa I wouldn't mention it."
"You watched her die," Naomi said.
He nodded. "I heard her on the radio. I was outside. I could've broken the rear door. Instead I waited for an order."
"Why?"
"Because my son needed medical treatment, and Sterling paid for it. Because I thought I'd lose my job. Because every excuse sounded reasonable until somebody burned."
No one spoke. A car rolled slowly past the far entrance, then disappeared.
Voss took a small memory card from his wallet. "This is a copy of the original security recording. It has the voices. I kept it after I was told to delete the server files."
Mara stepped forward. "Will you testify?"
"Yes."
A sharp sound cracked through the garage. Voss lurched. His shoulder struck Naomi, knocking her behind the pickup as another shot shattered a taillight. June dragged Mara down. Tess, watching from the street, rammed her Honda into the garage's automatic gate, jamming it halfway closed.
The shooter's sedan reversed and sped away. Voss was bleeding heavily but conscious. Naomi pressed her coat against his wound while Mara called an ambulance.
"Stay with me," Naomi ordered.
Voss managed a grim smile. "You sound like your mother."
"Then listen to me like you should've listened to her."
He pushed the memory card into her palm. "There's an audio file. Vanessa didn't know the microphone was on."
May you like
His eyes closed just as the ambulance siren reached the garage. Naomi looked down at the card, slick with blood.
If the recording was real, the fire had finally begun to speak.
