Chapter 13 - The Recording
Thomas's face changed.
That tiny red light did more than any gun could have done.
"How long?" he asked.
Vivian held up the recorder.
"Long enough."
Emma almost laughed at the echo of her own words from the night before.
Thomas raised the pistol.
Vivian dropped the recorder.
Emma threw the ledger through the open steel door and lunged.
The gun fired.
Vivian screamed.
She fell against the wall, one hand pressed to her upper arm.
Emma tackled Thomas at the knees.
The pistol skidded into the wine cellar.
Adrian came through the tunnel behind Thomas and slammed him into the stone wall.
Gavin was nowhere in sight.
Marcus followed, breathing hard. "Federal agents are upstairs."
Thomas stopped fighting.
That terrified Emma more than if he had kept swinging.
He smiled.
"Then they're late."
A heavy thud shook the floor.
Another.
Adrian looked toward the ceiling.
"What is that?"
Marcus's eyes widened. "Explosion?"
Smoke began curling through the tunnel.
Thomas laughed.
"Gavin always did like fire."
Adrian grabbed Vivian and lifted her.
Emma snatched the recorder from the floor.
"The ledger!"
"I have it," Marcus shouted from the doorway.
They ran.
The wine cellar was already filling with smoke.
Somewhere above them, an alarm screamed.
They reached the kitchen as sprinklers erupted from the ceiling.
Federal agents rushed past with weapons drawn.
"Fire in the west wing!" someone yelled.
Emma looked outside.
The villa's rear garage was burning.
A black car tore through the side gate.
Gavin.
An agent shouted into a radio.
Thomas was handcuffed on the kitchen floor.
Vivian sat against a cabinet while a medic wrapped her arm.
Emma turned on the recorder.
Static.
Then voices.
Thomas admitting he moved trust money.
Thomas saying Richard Harrington had become "a problem."
Thomas saying Gavin had "handled Nora badly."
It was all there.
Emma closed her eyes.
For the first time in six months, she could breathe.
Then the recording continued.
A second male voice entered the room.
A voice Emma recognized.
Marcus went still beside her.
On the recording, someone said, "If Emma finds the bank box, I'll bring her to you."
Emma slowly turned.
May you like
The voice belonged to Marcus.
Thomas watched Marcus with a strange little smile as agents moved in. Emma noticed it. At the time she thought it was arrogance. Seconds later, the recording told her it was recognition.
