Chapter 10 - The Voice in the Car
Evelyn panicked.
“Hide it.”
Claire stared at her.
“For once, don’t hide anything.”
Victor entered through the side door.
“Mother?”
He stopped when he saw Claire and Naomi.
His eyes moved to the gray case.
A long silence.
Then he smiled.
“You found garbage.”
Naomi removed the drive.
Victor’s smile vanished.
“Give me that.”
Claire placed it in her coat pocket.
“No.”
“It contains proprietary information.”
“It may contain evidence.”
“Evidence of what?”
Claire watched him.
“You tell me.”
Victor took one step closer.
Evelyn moved between them.
“Stop.”
He looked at his mother.
“Move.”
“No.”
That single word stunned him more than Claire expected.
Evelyn had obeyed Victor for fourteen months.
Now she stood against him.
“You used me,” Evelyn said.
Victor laughed softly.
“Claire did this quickly.”
“You told me Adrian stole eighteen million.”
“He did.”
“It was Leo’s trust.”
“Technicalities.”
“You told me the silver car could destroy the company.”
“It could have.”
“You told me you were in Chicago.”
Victor’s eyes hardened.
Evelyn whispered, “Were you in that car?”
He said nothing.
Claire’s phone recorded from inside her pocket.
Victor noticed.
“Recording me?”
“Should I be?”
He backed away.
“Enjoy your conspiracy.”
He left.
Evelyn sat down trembling.
“He used to follow Adrian everywhere when they were boys.”
Claire said nothing.
“He adored him.”
“Adoration can rot.”
The drive required a password.
Leo supplied the clue remotely.
“Dad always used lap times.”
Naomi tried Adrian’s famous Laguna Seca time.
Wrong.
Road America.
Wrong.
Daytona.
Wrong.
Claire remembered the wall photograph.
11:43.
The event time.
They entered 234318.
The drive unlocked.
One audio file remained intact.
Duration: nineteen minutes, twelve seconds.
Claire pressed play.
Engine noise.
Adrian’s voice.
“You’re done, Victor.”
Victor.
Alive inside the silver car.
“You’re my brother.”
“That’s why you’re getting tomorrow morning instead of handcuffs tonight.”
“You think you built this alone?”
“I never said that.”
“You kept the name. The patents. The press. Dad looked at you like you were the second coming.”
“Stop making theft into childhood.”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“You covered my losses because you wanted me grateful.”
“I covered them because Mother begged me.”
Evelyn gasped.
On the recording Victor’s breathing changed.
“You told Claire?”
“No.”
“You’re going to?”
“Yes.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Then Adrian said something worse.
“She already suspects the vendor account.”
Victor swore.
“So those messages were real,” Claire whispered.
But they meant the opposite of what Victor claimed.
Claire had discovered one suspicious invoice months earlier.
Adrian had dismissed it.
She thought he was hiding something from her.
He had been hiding his brother’s crime.
The recording continued.
Tires hissed over wet pavement.
Victor said, “Pull over.”
“We’re almost at the lower gate.”
“Pull over!”
A struggle.
Adrian shouted, “Let go of the wheel!”
Claire froze.
The engine surged.
Tires screamed.
Metal struck something.
The recording dissolved into static.
Then silence.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Then Adrian groaned.
Victor coughed.
“Adrian?”
Another groan.
Victor said, “Oh God.”
For one moment, he sounded like a brother.
Then Adrian whispered:
“Call… 911.”
Victor moved.
A door opened.
Adrian said again, weaker:
“Victor.”
No response.
Footsteps outside.
Then Victor’s voice, distant.
“Cal.”
Claire leaned toward the speaker.
Another man answered.
“Jesus Christ.”
Victor said, “Get the telemetry out.”
Cal replied, “We need an ambulance.”
“Get the telemetry first.”
Evelyn began crying.
The recording continued.
Cal said, “He’s alive.”
Victor’s reply was clear.
“I know.”
Claire’s nails dug into her palms.
Then:
“If he talks, I’m finished.”
The file ended.
No ambulance call.
No rescue.
Just silence.
Claire stood.
Naomi looked sick.
Evelyn whispered, “He knew.”
Claire’s face went cold.
“He knew Adrian was alive.”
The next morning Ortiz took the drive into evidence.
But the prosecutor identified a problem.
The recording established Victor was present.
It established obstruction.
It strongly suggested responsibility for the crash.
But the defense could challenge authenticity, completeness, and whether the delay caused Adrian’s death.
“Then we prove all of it,” Claire said.
Ortiz replied, “We try.”
Cal Danner became essential.
Police brought him in.
This time Claire saw him in person.
He looked exhausted.
Ortiz played the recording.
Cal listened.
Then he shook his head.
“That isn’t me.”
Claire stared.
“Your voice is on it.”
“It’s manipulated.”
Ortiz said, “We’ll authenticate it.”
Cal stood.
“I want a lawyer.”
Before leaving, he looked at Claire.
For half a second, his mask cracked.
Fear.
Not guilt.
Fear.
May you like
Someone still controlled him.
And Victor knew exactly how.
