Chapter 8 - The Recording Felix Wanted Buried
Olivia couldn't move.
Her mother, Sarah Bennett, looked smaller than memory.
Older.
Afraid.
Ryan stood behind Olivia.
Sarah saw him.
"You came."
Ryan nodded.
Olivia finally spoke.
"You were alive."
Sarah's face crumpled.
"Yes."
"Twelve years."
"I know."
"You let me think you were dead."
"Your father did that."
"You let him."
Sarah closed her eyes.
"Yes."
Olivia almost walked away.
Then Sarah said, "Your father worked for Vincent Marlowe."
She stopped.
Ryan stiffened.
"What?"
Sarah let them inside.
Adrian remained near the door.
Sarah recognized him.
"Elena's brother."
Adrian nodded.
"You knew Elena?"
Sarah began crying.
"She tried to help me."
The final pieces began moving into place.
Olivia's father, Thomas Bennett, had handled accounting for one of Vincent's shell companies.
When Sarah discovered it, Thomas threatened her.
She tried to leave.
Vincent intervened.
Not to protect her.
To protect himself.
Sarah was told to disappear or her children would suffer.
So she vanished.
Thomas told Ryan and Olivia she'd died.
Years later, Ryan unknowingly entered the same network when he took the security contract at Vale Tower.
"Why contact Ryan six months ago?" Olivia asked.
"Because Thomas died."
Olivia stared.
Their father had supposedly died two years earlier.
"That made it safe?"
"I thought so."
Sarah looked at Adrian.
"Then I learned Vincent was still active."
"And Felix?" Olivia asked.
Sarah swallowed.
"Felix knew who you were before he met you."
Olivia already knew that.
But Sarah continued.
"He didn't target you only because of Ryan."
"Then why?"
"Because Vincent thought your father left evidence with me."
Olivia sat down.
"He thought you gave it to me."
"Yes."
"What evidence?"
Sarah retrieved a small cassette recorder from a drawer.
"Thomas confessed."
Ryan stared.
"To what?"
"Everything."
Sarah pressed PLAY.
Thomas Bennett's voice filled the room.
He described Vincent's accounts.
The shell companies.
The intimidation.
Felix's role.
Vivian's involvement.
And Elena.
Thomas had seen Felix follow Elena from the parking garage.
He knew Vincent ordered it.
He had remained silent.
Then Thomas said something that made Adrian sit down.
"Elena called me that night. She said she had enough to expose Vincent. I told her to go to the police. Vincent heard about the call."
Adrian closed his eyes.
Sarah stopped the tape.
"There's more."
"Play it," Adrian said.
Thomas's voice returned.
"Vincent ordered Felix to recover Elena's evidence. Felix chased her. I don't know whether he intended for her to crash. But afterward, Vincent ordered every record changed."
There it was.
The truth.
Not speculation.
Not reconstructed accounts.
A witness.
Sarah had kept the original recording for twelve years.
"Why didn't you give this to police?" Olivia asked.
"Fear."
The answer was painfully simple.
Olivia understood fear.
That didn't make twelve years disappear.
But she understood it.
Sarah looked at her.
"I'm not asking you to forgive me."
"Good."
"I only want you alive."
Olivia stared at her mother.
"For years, everyone made decisions for me because they said they were protecting me."
Sarah lowered her eyes.
Olivia continued.
"Felix controlled me. Ryan hid things. You disappeared. Everyone decided I couldn't handle the truth."
Ryan whispered, "She's right."
Olivia looked at Adrian.
"And you."
He nodded.
"Me too."
"Stop."
"I will."
One word.
No defense.
That mattered.
The recording went immediately to investigators and multiple attorneys.
Vincent's position collapsed.
He knew it.
That night he called Olivia.
She answered with investigators recording.
"You found Sarah."
"Yes."
"She always was weak."
Olivia looked at her mother.
"No. She was scared."
"Same thing."
"No."
Olivia's voice remained calm.
"Fear is what someone feels. Weakness is what someone chooses."
Vincent laughed.
"You think you've won?"
"I think you're running out of people to hide behind."
"Come to Thirty-Fifth Street."
Adrian shook his head.
Investigators signaled Olivia to keep him talking.
"Why?"
"Because there's one thing your mother hasn't told you."
Sarah went pale.
Olivia noticed.
"What?"
Vincent continued.
"Ask her who actually put the flash drive in your bag."
Olivia looked at Sarah.
Her mother whispered, "I did."
Everyone froze.
Olivia stared.
"What?"
Sarah began crying.
"Three weeks ago."
"How?"
"I found where you worked."
"The diner."
Sarah nodded.
"I saw Felix watching you."
"You were there?"
"I slipped the drive into your canvas tote while you were serving another table."
Ryan stared.
"You had the drive?"
"Thomas gave it to me years ago."
Olivia's entire escape had been triggered by something she never knew she possessed.
Felix had seen Sarah.
He realized the drive had changed hands.
Then he began hunting Olivia.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I panicked."
Olivia laughed once.
A broken sound.
"Everyone panicked except me. I didn't even know what was happening."
Vincent remained on the phone.
"Thirty-Fifth Street. Old hardware store. Midnight."
The same place.
The alley.
"Why?"
"Because that's where this began for you."
"No," Olivia said.
She looked at Adrian.
Then Sarah.
Then Ryan.
"It began long before that."
She disconnected.
Investigators traced the call.
It came from the old hardware store.
Police surrounded the building before midnight.
But Vincent wasn't inside.
Instead, they found a projector.
At exactly midnight, it switched on.
Vincent appeared on-screen.
"If you're watching, you've followed the trail exactly as I expected."
Adrian's expression hardened.
The recording continued.
"The problem with frightened people is that they become predictable."
Olivia looked around.
Something was wrong.
Then Ryan's phone buzzed.
A live video arrived.
Claire.
Sitting inside her Milwaukee bookstore.
Someone was standing behind her.
Vincent's voice came through the video.
"Bring me Sarah's recording by sunrise."
The camera moved closer to Claire.
May you like
Then Vincent stepped into frame.
"And Olivia comes alone."
