Chapter 6
Arthur listened to the tape inside an interview room.
Detective Harris stayed with him.
The recording began with static.
Then his mother’s voice filled the room.
Arthur had not heard it in more than twenty years.
He immediately closed his eyes.
“Daniel, if you find this, I hope I was wrong.”
Arthur gripped the table.
His mother continued.
“You’ve been angry for so long. Your father doesn’t know what to do anymore. Neither do I.”
There was a pause.
Then her voice became quieter.
“You frightened Arthur tonight.”
Arthur opened his eyes.
He remembered nothing.
“I saw you standing over his bed. I heard what you said.”
Arthur looked at Harris.
His mother continued.
“You said someday everything would belong to you.”
The recording crackled.
“If anything happens to me or Arthur, your father needs to know.”
Then the tape stopped.
Arthur sat frozen.
“That’s all?” he asked.
Harris nodded.
“The rest appears erased.”
Arthur felt nauseated.
A buried childhood memory began returning.
Daniel entering his room at night.
Whispering.
Arthur hiding beneath a blanket.
He had convinced himself it was a nightmare.
Maybe it wasn’t.
Harris leaned forward.
“Your mother died the next day?”
“Yes.”
“Daniel was in the car?”
“No.”
“Where was he?”
Arthur thought.
“I don’t remember.”
Harris said quietly, “We’re reopening everything we can.”
Arthur returned to Victoria.
“Why would Daniel give you this?”
“He didn’t.”
“Then how did you get it?”
“I stole it.”
Arthur stared at her.
Victoria lowered her head.
“Last month, I started getting scared.”
“After abusing my children for him?”
She flinched.
“I know what I did.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I thought I could control it.”
“You dragged a four-year-old child by her hair.”
Victoria began crying.
Arthur did not soften.
“You hit Ethan because he protected her.”
“I know.”
“You told them I wouldn’t believe them.”
Victoria covered her face.
Arthur waited.
Finally, she whispered, “Daniel told me fear would make them obedient.”
Arthur stood.
“I’m done.”
“No! Arthur, please.”
He stopped.
Victoria pressed closer to the glass.
“He has someone inside your company.”
Arthur turned.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“He never gave me the name.”
“Then give me something useful.”
Victoria hesitated.
“There’s an account.”
“What account?”
“A hidden company account Daniel has been using.”
She wrote a sequence of numbers.
Arthur recognized the format.
His company.
That afternoon, auditors began checking.
Within hours, they discovered missing money.
Millions.
The transfers went back eleven years.
Before Daniel supposedly returned.
Arthur stared at the report.
“That’s impossible.”
The accountant shook her head.
“Someone has been moving money for a long time.”
“Who authorized it?”
She looked uncomfortable.
“The authorization code belongs to your father.”
“My father has been dead for nine years.”
“That’s why this is a serious problem.”
Arthur felt trapped inside a mystery that had started decades earlier.
Then the accountant pulled up the earliest transfer.
It happened two months after Daniel disappeared.
The recipient was a private company in Canada.
Arthur looked at the company name.
D.M. Holdings.
Daniel Michael.
His brother’s initials.
Arthur whispered, “Dad knew.”
The accountant looked confused.
“What?”
“My father knew Daniel was alive.”
That evening, Arthur searched old family documents stored digitally.
Near midnight, he found a scanned letter from his father.
It had never been sent.
Daniel,
I kept my promise. Arthur still believes you are dead. But I will not keep paying forever.
Arthur stared at the screen.
Behind him, Ethan spoke.
“Dad?”
Arthur turned.
Ethan stood in the doorway.
He held Maya’s stuffed rabbit.
There was a small tear in its back.
Something metallic was sticking out.
Arthur carefully opened the seam.
May you like
Inside was another tracking device.
And a tiny microphone.
