Chapter 10 - Nora’s Last Recording
Victor denied everything.
He did not shout.
He had too much experience with lawyers for that.
He sat across from Sophia in a private conference room and examined a still photograph from the traffic camera.
“That could be anyone.”
“It’s you.”
“A blurred image of a man in a dark suit.”
“You were wearing the same suit in security footage from headquarters that morning.”
Victor smiled thinly.
“You’ve become a detective.”
“No. I’ve become difficult to lie to.”
Victor leaned back.
“What do you want?”
“The truth.”
“That’s expensive.”
Sophia’s voice dropped.
“So was my son.”
For the first time, Victor’s expression slipped.
Then it returned.
“You think Julian did this?”
“I think both of you did.”
Victor looked toward the glass wall.
“You always believed you were Father’s favorite because he left you the largest voting block.”
“He left me responsibility.”
“He left me twenty-eight percent and a lifetime of taking orders from my younger sister.”
There it was.
Not confession.
Motive.
Sophia said, “Did you kidnap Leo because you hated me?”
Victor’s eyes returned to hers.
“If I wanted to hurt you, Sophia, there were cheaper ways.”
He stood.
“Ask your husband why he needed Northline.”
Then he left.
Sophia immediately called Tessa.
Victor had given her one useful thing.
Fear makes people point toward the person they fear more.
That afternoon forensic technicians managed to recover partial audio from one of Nora’s damaged burner phones.
The recording lasted six minutes.
It had been made in a pocket.
Voices were muffled.
But identifiable.
Cal Rourke spoke first.
“You take him to Seventy-Fourth. Two nights.”
Nora:
“You said nobody gets hurt.”
Cal:
“Nobody gets hurt if everybody does what they’re told.”
Then another voice.
Victor.
“Nora, listen to me. Sophia is stubborn. This scares her, she signs, Leo goes home.”
Nora:
“Signs what?”
Victor:
“Not your concern.”
Then Cal:
“Julian said not to tell her details.”
The recording shifted.
Fabric scraped.
Nora whispered something unintelligible.
Then Victor said:
“Once Sophia stops that audit, everybody wins.”
The audio ended.
Sophia sat motionless.
Quinn switched off the speaker.
“That is significant.”
“He names Julian.”
“Cal names Julian.”
“Victor says the audit.”
“Yes.”
“So arrest him.”
“The DA will move when charges are supportable.”
Sophia slammed her palm on the table.
“He kidnapped my child.”
Quinn’s voice sharpened.
“And if we charge too early and lose, you will watch him walk out of court.”
Sophia looked away.
“Do not confuse patience with weakness.”
That sentence followed her home.
Leo was awake past midnight.
Sophia found him sitting in the dark kitchen eating dry cereal.
“Nightmare?”
He shrugged.
She sat at the opposite side of the island.
After a while Leo asked, “Did Anna steal me?”
“No.”
“But she took me.”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t that stealing?”
Sophia thought carefully.
“She agreed to help people do something terrible.”
Leo looked down.
“Then she changed her mind?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she realized they might hurt you.”
Leo stirred the cereal.
“Did she save me?”
“Yes.”
He nodded once.
Sophia’s voice broke.
“I wish I could thank her.”
Leo looked at her.
“She knew you were looking.”
“How?”
“She had newspapers.”
Sophia stared.
“She cut out pictures.”
“What pictures?”
“You.”
He climbed down and disappeared into his room.
A minute later he returned carrying a folded envelope from Miriam’s belongings.
Inside were old newspaper clippings.
Sophia at press conferences.
Sophia offering a five-million-dollar reward.
Sophia crying outside police headquarters.
Sophia and Julian holding hands at a candlelight vigil.
Leo pointed to one photograph.
“Anna used to look at this one.”
Sophia stared at Julian beside her.
“What did she say?”
“She said she was sorry.”
Sophia closed her eyes.
The next morning Miriam arrived with another memory.
“Anna got a voicemail once. She listened to it three times.”
“What did it say?”
“I only heard part.”
Miriam swallowed.
“A man told her, ‘If you bring him back, Emma dies first.’”
“Emma?”
“Nora’s sister, I assume.”
Quinn located Emma Bell within six hours.
She lived outside Philadelphia.
She was alive.
May you like
And when Quinn called, Emma said the sentence that changed the investigation again.
“I’ve been waiting five years for Sophia Hart to find me.”
