Back Through the Music
Chapter 09 - Back Through the Music
Owen realized his mistake the moment he made it.
He recovered quickly. Lawyers were trained to build bridges after stepping off cliffs.
“Emma used dozens of recorders,” he said. “I recognized the ribbon.”
Daniel looked down at the device. The yellow ribbon was faded, almost brown. From ten feet away, it looked like string.
“You recognized it before Mia held it up,” Daniel said.
“I knew about the recording.”
“How?”
Claire answered for him. “Because he has been looking for it for five years.”
Owen turned toward her.
That glance ended their partnership.
Claire removed her veil. Her hands shook, but her voice steadied.
“He told me Emma made a recording before the Blackwater crash. He said it contained confused accusations caused by exhaustion.”
“Claire,” Evelyn warned.
“No, Mother.” Claire faced the guests. “I have spent my whole life letting people with better lawyers decide what I am allowed to say.”
Owen smiled without warmth. “This is not the moment for theater.”
Claire looked at the wedding cake, the flowers, the cameras, the senator’s wife still holding a fork. “Owen, this entire building is theater.”
Daniel pressed play.
Static filled the ballroom speakers of the small recorder. Emma’s voice emerged thin but unmistakable.
“Field log, Blackwater operation, August seventeenth. If Daniel is hearing this, Owen has already lied to him.”
Daniel’s fingers tightened.
Mia leaned against him.
Emma continued. “Beacon emergency funds are being routed through Holloway Response Consulting. The invoices are false. Owen authorized them. I confronted him at 9:40 p.m. He threatened to remove me from the foundation and said Daniel would believe the numbers before he believed me.”
Owen’s expression did not change, but sweat appeared near his collar.
The recording crackled.
“I copied the ledgers. If something happens during tomorrow’s flood deployment, inspect Rescue Two’s beacon and the north hangar maintenance logs.”
Then came a sound Daniel had forgotten he remembered: Emma exhaling through her nose when she was angry but trying not to show it.
“I hate leaving this for you, Danny. You always think losing someone means you failed to hold on. Sometimes people are taken because someone else cut the rope.”
The recording ended.
Daniel stood in the middle of his wedding reception and heard the last five years rearrange themselves.
Owen had been the one who reported Emma’s rescue beacon failed because of flood damage.
Owen had hired Holloway Response to maintain the equipment.
Grant Holloway, the security chief who had carried Mia into the basement, was the company owner’s son.
Daniel looked toward the doors.
Grant was no longer there.
Natalie followed his gaze. “I’ll find him.”
“No,” Daniel said. “Police are coming.”
Owen straightened his jacket. “A five-year-old recording proves nothing. Emma was emotional. She made accusations without evidence.”
Daniel held up the envelope from North Harbor.
May you like
“Then why did you intercept this?”
For the first time, Owen looked afraid of paper.
