Chapter 5: The Voice on the Tape
The cassette clicked, and the recording ended.
For several seconds, neither Maya nor I moved.
My father's voice had filled the room, then vanished so abruptly that the silence seemed physical.
I pressed the play button again.
Static.
A low mechanical hum.
Then my father's voice returned.
"If you're hearing this, Daniel, then Victor has found the book.""
I listened through the entire recording a second time.
He repeated the same story about the bridge, the missing money, and Michael's murder. He admitted that he'd helped conceal the crime, but every time he approached the identity of the killer, his voice became strained.
The tape ended with the same name.
*Rebecca Mercer.*
My sister.
I stared at the recorder.
"No," I whispered.
Maya watched my face.
I turned toward her.
"Did your mother tell you that name?""
She nodded slowly.
I felt a cold pressure behind my ribs.
Rebecca had left home when she was twenty-two. She'd said she wanted a fresh start, a career in publishing, and a life far away from the diner. For years, we'd exchanged birthday cards and occasional phone calls.
She'd visited me twice after our father died.
The last time, she'd hugged me in the driveway and told me she was proud of the way I'd kept Rosewood alive.
I remembered her hands resting on my shoulders.
I remembered her smile.
I remembered her telling me that Dad had made mistakes but had always loved us.
And now my dead father's voice was telling me that she had helped murder a man.
I stood so quickly that my chair scraped backward.
"She couldn't have done it.""
Maya looked down at the floor.
I regretted the sharpness in my voice immediately.
"I'm sorry," I said, crouching beside her.
"I'm not angry with you.""
She reached for the notebook and wrote:
*MOM SAID YOUR SISTER KNOWS WHERE THE ORIGINAL BOOK IS.*
I stared at the sentence.
"Why would my mother know anything about Rebecca?""
Maya drew two people standing together.
One had long hair.
The other wore a jacket.
She pointed to the person with long hair, then wrote:
*THE WOMAN AT THE HOSPITAL.*
I sat back.
"Your mother met Rebecca at a hospital?""
Maya nodded.
Then she drew a small bed and a clock.
Her writing became slower, more careful.
*MOM WAS HURT. A WOMAN CAME TO SEE HER. SHE SAID SHE WAS YOUR SISTER.*
I asked when it happened.
Maya wrote a date.
September 29.
Less than three weeks ago.
Elena had been taken to a hospital after being found beside the road outside town. She'd suffered a head injury and several broken ribs. Before the police arrived, a woman had visited her room.
The woman had introduced herself as Rebecca Mercer.
She'd warned Elena that the people responsible for Michael's death were preparing to eliminate anyone who still possessed the original financial records.
Then she'd given Elena a name.
A name Maya didn't know how to spell.
Maya tried anyway.
*MARTIN VALE.*
I recognized that name, too.
Martin Vale had been my father's attorney for nearly thirty years. He had handled the paperwork when my father died and helped settle the estate.
He was also the person who'd advised me not to investigate the bridge fire.
I remembered sitting in his office after the funeral, asking whether my father had ever been involved in anything illegal.
Martin had folded his hands over his desk and told me that grief could make people search for explanations that didn't exist.
I'd believed him.
Maya tapped the notebook.
I looked at her.
She wrote another sentence.
*MOM SAID FIND THE MAN WITH THE SILVER WATCH.*
I pulled the photograph from my pocket.
The man standing beside my father wore a silver watch.
So did the man in the photograph from the construction site.
Victor Sloane wore a gold watch in every public photograph I'd ever seen.
Officer Harris wore a black digital watch.
Carl wore a battered leather strap.
But Martin Vale?
I'd never paid attention to his watch.
I looked at the clock on the wall.
It was nearly eleven.
The roads were wet, the police were compromised, and two men had already searched my diner.
We needed help from someone outside the town.
I reached for my phone.
One bar of signal had appeared.
I dialed my sister.
She answered on the fourth ring.
"Daniel?""
Her voice was exactly as I remembered it. Warm, slightly breathless, with the faint rasp she always had when she was tired.
I nearly broke down.
"Rebecca.""
A pause.
"What's wrong?""
I looked at Maya.
Then at the photograph.
"Where were you on the night of the bridge fire?""
The silence on the other end lasted so long that I checked whether the call had disconnected.
Finally, Rebecca spoke.
"Why are you asking me that?""
"Because Dad left a recording.""
Another pause.
"What recording?""
"He said Michael Alvarez was murdered. He said he helped cover it up. And he said you were involved.""
I heard a sharp intake of breath.
Then a door closed on her end of the line.
"Daniel, listen to me very carefully. Do you still have the blue book?""
I froze.
"How do you know about the book?""
"Answer me.""
"Yes.""
"Then don't open it again. Don't show it to anyone. Don't take it to the police.""
"That's exactly what Elena told Maya.""
Rebecca went quiet.
I watched the girl's face.
She was staring at the phone, her expression changing with every word.
"Daniel," Rebecca said, "you need to leave that house.""
"Why?""
"Because Victor knows about the recording.""
"How?""
"I can't explain over the phone.""
"Try.""
"I said I can't!""
Her sudden anger startled me.
Then her voice softened.
"Please. I'm begging you. Take Maya somewhere safe and wait for me. I'll be there tomorrow morning.""
"No.""
"Daniel—"
"You're not giving me orders. Not after what Dad said.""
She inhaled sharply.
"Then you need to hear the rest of his story.""
My heart hammered.
"What rest?""
Rebecca's voice trembled.
"Michael wasn't the only person who died at the bridge.""
I closed my eyes.
"Who else died?""
"Our mother.""
I couldn't speak.
My mother had died six years earlier after a long illness. The cause had been complications from a stroke.
That was what I'd been told.
That was what her medical records said.
Rebecca continued.
"She was there that night. She saw what happened. She helped Dad get home, and she kept the secret because she believed she was protecting us.""
"She died in 2020.""
"She died from a stroke in 2020. But the damage that led to it started years earlier. She never recovered from what she saw.""
I wanted to believe her.
I also wanted to throw the phone across the room.
"Why didn't you tell me?""
"Because Dad made me promise.""
"Promise what?""
"That if anything happened to him, I'd keep you away from the truth.""
I laughed once, without humor.
"Well, congratulations. The truth has found me.""
Rebecca was crying now.
"Daniel, I didn't kill Michael.""
"Then why did Dad name you?""
"Because I was there.""
The room seemed to shrink around me.
She continued before I could respond.
"I was seventeen. Dad had taken me to the bridge because he wanted me to deliver a message to Michael. He thought Michael would listen to me. He thought that because I was young, nobody would suspect me.""
"What message?""
"That Victor had discovered the photographs Michael took. Dad wanted him to leave town before the company could silence him.""
"And you went?""
"Yes.""
"Did you see Michael die?""
Her answer came in a whisper.
"Yes.""
I gripped the phone so tightly my fingers hurt.
"Did you help?""
"No.""
"Did you know who did?""
Rebecca began to sob.
"I thought I did. For twenty years, I thought I knew. But a week before Dad died, he told me something that changed everything.""
"What?""
"He said the person who killed Michael had been protecting us ever since.""
I looked at Maya.
She was watching me with wide, frightened eyes.
"Rebecca, who killed Michael?""
"I don't know.""
"But Dad knew.""
"Yes.""
"And he named you.""
"Because I was the only person who could identify the killer.""
My mouth went dry.
"What are you saying?""
Rebecca took a shaky breath.
"Daniel, the person who killed Michael was wearing a uniform that night. I never saw his face clearly. But I saw his watch.""
I glanced at the photograph.
A silver watch.
Rebecca continued.
"After Dad died, I tried to find the original records. Martin Vale told me they'd been destroyed. I believed him until Elena contacted me last month.""
"She found the records?""
"She found part of them. The original ledger was hidden in a place nobody thought to look.""
"Where?""
"I don't know. Elena wouldn't tell me over the phone. She said she needed to protect Maya.""
I looked at the child beside me.
She had gone pale.
"Rebecca, Maya's mother is missing.""
"What?""
"Someone came to the diner looking for her. Carl was involved. Officer Harris is involved. I think Elena is dead.""
My sister stopped crying.
When she spoke again, her voice was cold and controlled.
"Then we have less time than I thought.""
A loud crash sounded outside the house.
Maya jumped.
I turned toward the window.
Headlights swept across the curtains.
A vehicle had stopped at the end of the driveway.
Rebecca heard the noise.
"Daniel, get away from the windows.""
I switched off the lamp.
The room fell into darkness.
"Who's there?"" I whispered.
"I don't know. But listen to me. There's a safe in Dad's old office.
A small one behind the bottom drawer. If it's still there, open it.""
I glanced toward the desk.
I'd already searched it.
"There was nothing.""
"Did you remove the false back?""
I stared at the drawer.
"No.""
"Then do it now. Dad told me the combination was the date he met Michael.""
"How am I supposed to know that?""
Rebecca whispered four numbers.
"Try it.""
The line crackled.
Then she said something else.
"Daniel, there's one more thing you need to know.""
I pulled the bottom drawer out and felt along the back panel.
"What?""
"Martin Vale isn't just Dad's old attorney.""
My fingers found a small metal latch.
I pressed it.
The false panel shifted, revealing a narrow compartment.
Inside sat a black metal safe.
Rebecca's voice shook.
"He's Maya's grandfather.""
I stopped moving.
"What?""
"Elena was his daughter. She changed her surname after she married Michael because she wanted nothing to do with him.""
The safe clicked open.
Inside lay a second cassette, a small envelope, and a folded piece of paper.
I reached for the envelope.
On the front, my father had written:
*FOR DANIEL. ONLY AFTER REBECCA TELLS YOU THE TRUTH.*
I stared at the words.
Then I heard a sound behind me.
A floorboard creaked.
I turned.
Maya was standing in the doorway.
Her face was white.
She pointed toward the front of the house.
Then she signed two words.
HE'S HERE.
A shadow passed across the curtains.
Someone knocked on the front door.
Three slow, deliberate knocks.
May you like
Then a man's voice called from the porch.
"Daniel? It's Martin Vale.""
