Chapter 17 - The Word They Cut in Half

"My voice?" I repeated.

Grant nodded. "You're not a suspect. But you need to hear what the recording contains before someone uses it against you."

The original unit had been recovered from a car Shaw abandoned at a private airstrip. A mechanic noticed a man switching license plates and called the authorities. By the time officers arrived, Shaw was gone. The recording device remained beneath the passenger seat, wrapped in a Northline maintenance blanket.

Grant played a forty-second excerpt. Through crackling radio traffic I heard my own voice, weak and frantic. "Hold—hold on, Liam. Don't close your eyes. I'm coming."

Then a new voice cut in. "All teams hold position. Cargo recovery takes priority." Price.

My stomach turned. "They used the first word of my sentence."

Grant opened an earlier case file. The official investigation had cited a clipped transmission from me as proof that I'd ordered the rescue team to wait. They'd taken my desperate plea to my brother and turned it into a command.

"I was pinned beneath the truck," I said. "I couldn't even stand."

"The full audio confirms that," Grant replied. "The timestamps confirm when you spoke. So do the separate medical channels."

The recording went on. Liam was breathing hard. Owen begged for help. Voss requested clearance. Price refused. Then, after twenty-nine minutes, Owen's voice broke as he reported that he couldn't find a pulse.

I gripped my crutch until my hand hurt.

"Stop it," I said softly.

Grant stopped the recording. "You don't have to listen to more. We have what we need."

Outside, Voss waited under the corridor lights. "I'm giving a complete statement," he told me. "All of it. I won't ask you to forgive me."

"Good."

My mother's five thousand dollars had been preserved with its original envelope. The serial numbers matched funds withdrawn from an account Shaw controlled. The money wasn't proof Liam had taken a bribe willingly. Alongside his messages and the recording, it showed he'd been trying to preserve evidence while keeping his family safe.

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Grant's phone rang. Shaw had been located at a storage yard, where he was attempting to leave in a freight truck.

Before Grant could finish speaking, a second agent called from the scene. "He's taken a driver hostage," the man said. "He's demanding to talk to Whitcomb."