Chapter 15 - The Recording
The recording was not in the storage locker.
Brent had kept the one thing that could destroy Arthur somewhere else.
Police issued a warrant for Brent’s arrest.
By morning, his face was on every local station.
Rosa reopened her flower cart anyway.
“You’re serious?” Mateo asked.
“People still need flowers.”
“Ma, a wanted man threatened you.”
“And Mrs. Kaplan ordered six yellow roses for her sister’s birthday. Life is complicated.”
Mateo laughed despite himself and helped lift the buckets onto the cart.
For the first time in days, customers lined up around the block. Some came because of the viral video. Others came because they remembered Rosa before any of this.
One elderly man paid for a single carnation and left a hundred-dollar bill.
Rosa chased him down. “Sir, you forgot your change.”
He shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”
Across the street, Celeste watched quietly.
She had lost her board position that morning.
She had also learned her father had frozen her family trust.
For the first time in her adult life, she was rich in name and uncertain in reality.
Rosa handed her an apron.
Celeste stared at it. “What’s this?”
“You said you wanted to help.”
“With the case.”
“I need someone to strip thorns.”
Naomi burst out laughing.
Celeste put on the apron.
Two hours later, a delivery envelope arrived with no return address.
Inside was a USB drive.
Naomi plugged it into her laptop.
One audio file.
Arthur’s voice filled the tiny back room behind the cart.
“I don’t care how you stop her. I care that she stops.”
Brent answered, “You understand what you’re asking?”
Arthur said, “I’m asking you to solve a problem.”
Then came the sound of a glass setting down.
Brent: “And if the solution is permanent?”
A long silence.
Arthur: “Then make sure it looks like an accident.”
Celeste covered her mouth.
Rosa closed her eyes.
Naomi stopped the recording.
No one spoke.
May you like
Then a shadow moved past the back-room window.
The door handle turned.
