Chapter 11 - The Recording Behind the Wall
Gas began pouring through the vents.
Roman shot the nearest window.
Reinforced glass.
Evelyn ran toward the service panel.
“Wedding security upgrade.”
Roman glared.
“You reinforced the ballroom?”
“My father insisted.”
Nora coughed.
Caleb clung to her.
Roman wrapped his jacket around the boy’s face.
Dominic smashed the control panel.
Nothing.
Then Nora remembered the kitchen ventilation shaft.
“There’s a manual shutoff in the pantry.”
Locked door.
Roman fired the hinges.
They reached it.
Dominic shut the system down.
The gas thinned.
Nobody lost consciousness.
Charles had expected panic.
Instead, they found a message hidden behind the panel.
A recorder.
Sarah’s voice.
“If Charles ever locks you inside this house, use the servants’ passages.”
Nora stared.
Her mother had planned for this years ago.
They entered a narrow corridor behind the walls.
Caleb whispered, “This is cool.”
Nora looked at him.
“No.”
“A little.”
Roman almost smiled.
The passage led behind the library.
There they heard voices.
Charles.
Sarah.
“You should have stayed dead,” Charles said.
Sarah answered, “You first.”
Nora pressed her hand over her mouth.
Roman found a hidden latch.
Before opening it, they listened.
Charles wanted the original ledger.
Sarah claimed it had been destroyed.
He did not believe her.
Then he said, “Tell Nora the truth about why you chose her name.”
Silence.
“Tell her who Nora Sterling was.”
Nora looked at Roman.
Sarah finally spoke.
“She was your sister.”
Roman froze.
Charles laughed.
“My little sister. The only person in my family who ever defied me. Sarah named her daughter after her.”
Nora’s identity suddenly carried another ghost.
Charles continued.
“And what happened to my sister?”
“You killed her.”
Nora closed her eyes.
Charles’s voice sharpened.
“She betrayed me.”
“No. She exposed you.”
Roman opened the hidden panel.
Charles turned.
Gun raised.
Sarah knocked his arm aside.
Roman tackled him.
The gun slid across the floor.
Nora pulled Sarah away.
Dominic restrained Charles.
For once, it seemed finished.
Then Charles laughed.
“You still don’t understand.”
Roman punched him.
“What?”
“You think I came here for a ledger?”
Charles looked toward the wall.
“The recording.”
Roman frowned.
“What recording?”
Charles smiled.
“The one that proves who ordered Isabella Calder’s murder.”
Roman went still.
Sarah whispered, “Charles.”
“No more secrets.”
Charles nodded toward the wall.
“Behind Vincent’s portrait.”
Roman removed the painting.
A recessed compartment appeared.
Inside was an old microcassette.
They played it.
Vincent’s voice.
“I want Isabella stopped.”
Roman stopped breathing.
Another man asked, “Killed?”
Long silence.
Then Vincent said:
“If necessary.”
Roman stepped backward.
His father had ordered the action that killed his mother.
Charles watched him collapse internally.
“That is the inheritance you protected.”
Roman stared at the recorder.
Nora moved beside him.
He did not look at her.
“My father killed her.”
“Your father gave an order.”
“That killed her.”
“Yes.”
She would not lie to comfort him.
He needed that.
Charles smiled.
“Now you understand why your mother wanted you away from him.”
Roman turned.
“And you?”
“What?”
“You exploited the order. You turned it into a massacre.”
Charles’s smile faded.
Sarah nodded.
“Vincent wanted Isabella brought back. Charles sent men to kill everyone.”
Roman looked at Dominic.
“Copy the recording.”
Charles laughed.
“For what? Another prosecutor I own?”
Evelyn entered.
“Not this time.”
She held her phone up.
The entire conversation had been transmitted live to federal investigators.
Charles stared at his daughter.
“You stupid girl.”
Evelyn’s hand trembled.
“No. Just late.”
Police surrounded the mansion.
Charles was arrested.
Again.
This time by a federal tactical unit Evelyn had contacted directly.
As they led him away, he looked at Roman.
“You still think this ends with me?”
Roman said nothing.
Charles smiled.
“Ask Dominic who called Vincent that night.”
Roman turned.
Dominic’s face went white.
Charles laughed as they dragged him outside.
Roman stared at his oldest friend.
“Who called my father?”
Dominic swallowed.
“My father.”
Roman said nothing.
Dominic continued.
“But he wasn’t calling about Isabella.”
“Then why?”
“He was warning Vincent that someone inside the Calder family had already sold her location.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
Dominic looked toward the staircase.
A woman stood there.
Someone who had entered with the federal agents.
Roman had not seen her in twenty-two years.
His father’s sister.
Aunt Victoria.
She smiled.
May you like
“Hello, Roman.”
And in her hand was the necklace Roman’s mother had been wearing the night she died.
