Chapter 17 - The Recording
Vanessa was taken to the hospital under guard.
Grant and Rourke were booked separately before dawn.
Daniel needed stitches but refused to leave Lily until Sarah promised to stay beside her.
At 4:10 a.m., Vanessa asked to speak with Ruiz and Daniel.
She looked smaller in the hospital bed, her shoulder bandaged, one wrist cuffed to the rail.
“Grant made me keep copies,” she said. “Insurance against Rourke.”
“Where?” Ruiz asked.
Vanessa looked at Daniel. “The mansion.”
Daniel almost laughed. “We tore open the wall.”
“Wrong wall.”
She explained that Grant had hidden a waterproof case inside an unused chimney flue in Robert Mercer’s old study. It contained backup ledgers, Rourke’s payment records, and digital recordings Grant made because he trusted no one.
“Why tell us now?” Daniel asked.
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“Because Lily ran toward you, not me. And I finally understood what I became.”
“That doesn’t erase anything.”
“I know.”
State police searched the study at sunrise.
Behind a loose firebrick they found the case.
Inside were drives, cash ledgers, forged contracts, and an audio recorder.
One file was dated the day Robert died.
Daniel listened in a quiet interview room.
Robert’s voice came first.
“You stole from Daniel. You used my guilt to get close to him.”
Grant answered, “Your guilt is the only inheritance you ever gave me.”
Then Robert said, “I’m telling him everything.”
A struggle followed.
Grant shouted.
Robert cried out.
Wind roared across the microphone.
Then silence.
Daniel removed the headphones.
His father had not fallen.
Grant had pushed him.
The next recording was even worse.
Rourke said, “The wife saw too much. We make it look like the river.”
Grant replied, “No body. No murder charge.”
Sarah covered her mouth when she heard it.
Ruiz stopped the playback.
“We have him.”
Daniel should have felt relief.
Instead he thought of the years Lily spent asking why her mother never came home.
Then a technician entered carrying one final device from the case.
“You need to see this,” he said.
On it was a video recorded only two months earlier.
May you like
Grant sat across from Vanessa.
And Vanessa was the one giving orders.
