Chapter 3 - The Recorder
The ambulance arrived before the police.
Paramedics carried Emma downstairs on a stretcher while Daniel walked beside her, holding her hand. Lily followed with Clara, clutching the stuffed rabbit and refusing to let anyone separate her from her mother.
At the entrance, guests stood in confused clusters. Some had heard the shouting. Others had seen the bride escorted away from the dressing room by security.
The ceremony had been canceled.
Daniel barely noticed.
At the hospital, doctors discovered that Emma was severely dehydrated and malnourished. Her wrists were bruised from restraints, and she had an untreated infection in one ankle. She was conscious, but weak.
A nurse asked Daniel to wait outside while they examined her.
Lily sat beside him in the corridor.
“Is Mommy going to disappear again?” she asked.
Daniel pulled her onto his lap.
“No. I won't let anyone take her away.”
“Vanessa said Mommy went to heaven.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“She said Mommy didn't want to see me.”
His throat tightened. “She lied, sweetheart.”
Lily looked down at her rabbit. “Mommy kept calling me?”
“I believe she did.”
The police arrived with a detective named Mara Ellis. She was direct, calm, and unimpressed by Daniel's family name.
“Mr. Whitmore, we need to know who had access to the east wing,” she said.
“Vanessa. The house manager. The renovation crew. My security staff.”
“Who knew about the hidden compartment?”
“I didn't.”
“Did your wife—Emma—have enemies?”
Daniel stared at her. “She was my wife. She had no reason to be locked inside my house.”
Detective Ellis nodded. “We found a concealed door in the old storage closet. It had been covered with new paneling. Someone planned this.”
Daniel handed her the recorder.
“Emma told me not to let Vanessa take it.”
The detective placed it in an evidence bag.
“Do you know what's on it?”
“No.”
“Then we'll listen with you once the forensic team has checked it.”
A few hours later, Daniel sat in a small interview room with Detective Ellis and a technician. The recorder contained several audio files. The first was a conversation between Vanessa and a man.
The man's voice was familiar.
Daniel leaned forward.
“That's Richard.”
Richard Hale was Vanessa's older brother and Daniel's chief financial adviser. He had worked for the Whitmore family for nearly fifteen years. He had been the one to help Daniel manage the company after Emma disappeared.
The recording began.
Vanessa: “She won't sign the papers.”
Richard: “Then she stays where she is until she does.”
Vanessa: “Daniel thinks she's dead.”
Richard: “Daniel thinks what we told him. Keep it that way.”
A chair scraped.
Vanessa: “What if she gets out?”
Richard: “She won't. The wall is sealed, and the staff have been paid. After the wedding, we'll move her somewhere else.”
Daniel felt cold spread through his chest.
The next recording was clearer.
Richard: “Once Daniel marries you, the trust changes. You'll have authority over Lily's inheritance. I can finish the transfer through the company.”
Vanessa: “And Emma?”
Richard: “She'll be a problem only if she lives long enough to speak.”
The technician stopped the audio.
Daniel stared at the table.
His wedding had not been the end of a love story.
It had been the final step in a plan to take his daughter's inheritance.
Detective Ellis spoke carefully. “Mr. Whitmore, this is evidence of a conspiracy. We will need the original trust documents and the records of any transfers.”
Daniel nodded.
“Richard has access to all of them.”
“Then we need to act quickly.”
Daniel stood.
“Where is he?”
“Not here. We have officers looking for him.”
Daniel looked through the glass at the corridor outside. Lily was asleep against Clara's shoulder.
“Find him,” he said. “But don't let him near my daughter.”
The detective closed the evidence folder.
“We'll do everything we can.”
Daniel looked back at the recorder.
There was one more file.
May you like
Its title was only a date.
And it had been recorded the night Emma disappeared.
