Chapter 6 - Amelia’s Recording
The recording lasted eleven minutes and forty-two seconds.
Detective Brooks played it for us in a secured interview room the next morning.
At first, there was only fabric rustling and Amelia breathing.
Then Mother’s voice.
“You sign the statement, and this ends.”
Amelia’s voice came next, stronger than she sounded now.
“You forged Thomas’s signature.”
Diane said, “Lower your voice.”
“No. You forged it. And you moved money out of Reed Development for almost two years.”
A chair scraped.
Mother spoke calmly. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I have copies.”
Silence.
Then Diane: “Where?”
Amelia laughed once. “That’s the part I’m not telling you.”
I closed my eyes.
That was my wife. Terrified and still fighting.
The audio continued.
Mother said, “Daniel will believe you left him. We already have the train station. We have the luggage. We have the messages.”
My stomach turned.
The texts I received from Amelia’s phone after she disappeared—Don’t call me. I need space. I can’t do this anymore.—had been fake.
Brooks paused the recording.
“Those messages are being traced,” she said.
“Keep playing.”
She did.
Near the end, another voice entered the room.
A man.
Distorted by distance, but familiar enough to make my skin tighten.
“What’s taking so long?” he asked.
Amelia’s hand squeezed mine under the table.
Brooks replayed the line.
“What’s taking so long?”
I knew that voice.
“No,” I said.
Brooks looked at me. “Who is it?”
I stood up so quickly the chair hit the wall.
My younger brother, Michael.
The brother who had spent all eight days of Amelia’s disappearance sleeping in my guest house because he said I shouldn’t be alone.
The brother who had taken Noah to school every morning.
The brother who had hugged me while I cried.
Amelia whispered, “Daniel, I’m sorry.”
I was already reaching for my phone.
Michael had texted me ten minutes earlier.
Taking Noah home to grab his favorite blanket.
May you like
I looked through the glass.
Noah’s chair was empty.
