Chapter 4 - The Man Beside Sarah
David stared at Mark Voss's name until the letters stopped looking real.
Mark had been his friend for fifteen years.
They had met in graduate school.
They had built Halston Development from two desks in a rented office into a company worth more than anyone in either family had imagined.
Mark had been best man at David and Emma's wedding.
He had stood beside David at Emma's funeral.
He had carried Leo out of the church when the boy became too overwhelmed to keep walking.
And now an old photograph showed Mark standing beside Sarah five days before Emma died.
David searched his old messages from the Hollis dinner.
Mark had texted him three times before Sarah approached.
One message said, You should stay for the auction.
Another said, I found someone you should meet.
Mark later deleted that second message from his own phone, but David still had it.
Chance was disappearing from the story.
Sarah had told David she met Mark after she met David.
Another lie.
"Where is Mark?"
David asked.
Michael took out his phone.
"He was invited tonight."
"He texted that he was sick," Sarah said.
Everyone looked at her.
She immediately realized what she had done.
David's voice lowered.
"How do you know?"
"Because you told me."
"No, I did not."
The name Mark Voss dragged other memories behind it.
Mark had encouraged David to start dating again.
He had been relentless about it.
"Emma would not want you turning into furniture," he once joked.
At the time, David had been offended.
Two weeks later, Mark sent him an invitation to the Hollis Foundation dinner and insisted he attend.
That was where David met Sarah.
Or thought he did.
David remembered Mark's expression when he introduced them formally later that evening.
There had been a pause.
Less than a second.
David had interpreted it as surprise because Sarah had spilled champagne on his jacket five minutes earlier.
Now he replayed the moment with different knowledge.
Mark had known her.
Sarah had known Mark.
Both had pretended otherwise while David stood between them making a joke about dry cleaning.
He felt physically embarrassed by the memory even though he had been the only person not lying.
Michael seemed to read his face.
"Do not start blaming yourself for not catching a lie two people rehearsed before you walked into the room."
David looked at him.
"How do you know it was rehearsed?"
Michael glanced at the photograph.
"Because nobody lies that smoothly by accident."
"You must have."
"I did not."
Sarah rubbed her forehead.
"Then maybe he texted me too."
"Show me."
"My phone is upstairs."
Mason's gaze moved between them.
"Go get it."
Sarah laughed without humor.
"You cannot order me around in my own home."
"I am not ordering you."
Mason held up the photograph.
"I am giving you a chance to explain why you knew a man you claim you had never met."
Sarah's eyes flashed.
"Fine."
She went upstairs.
David watched until she disappeared.
Then he looked at Mason.
"Tell me this could be nothing."
Mason did not lie to him.
"I cannot."
Claire sat beside Leo on the sofa.
"Who is Mark Voss?"
Leo asked.
David looked at his son.
"My business partner."
"Mom knew him?"
"Yes."
"Did Sarah know him?"
David looked at the photograph again.
"Apparently."
Leo's face tightened with the effort not to cry.
"Did Mom know Sarah?"
No one answered.
That silence became an answer anyway.
Mason turned the photograph over.
"Emma wrote the date and name herself?"
Claire leaned closer.
"That is her handwriting."
"You are sure?"
"I have birthday cards from her going back twenty years."
David nodded.
"It is hers."
Mason photographed both sides with his phone.
"I want the original."
Leo hugged the blue box against his chest.
"No."
Mason crouched in front of him.
"I will give it back."
"People keep taking Mom's things."
The words hit David with unexpected force.
Mason softened his voice.
"Then your dad can keep it tonight."
"What about the police?"
"Your dad can bring it to me tomorrow."
Leo looked at David.
"You promise?"
"I promise."
Leo handed him the photograph.
David slid it carefully into a clean envelope.
Sarah returned carrying her phone.
"There."
She unlocked it and held it out.
David opened her messages.
There was no recent conversation with Mark.
He searched the name.
Nothing.
"You deleted it."
"Or you were wrong."
"You just said he texted you."
"I said maybe."
"You knew he was sick."
Sarah crossed her arms.
"People talk."
"Who told you?"
"I do not remember."
David stared at her.
It was the fourth time she had used that answer in less than an hour.
Mason's phone rang.
He stepped away to answer.
David lowered his voice.
"Sarah, I need you to stop."
"Stop what?"
"Lying."
Tears filled her eyes again.
"You have decided I am guilty of something, and you do not even know what the something is."
"I know you lied about knowing Emma."
"I said I did not know her."
"You were beside her car the night she died."
"That has not been proven."
"You were photographed with Mark five days earlier."
"So?"
"You said you had never met him."
Sarah looked away.
David waited.
Finally, she spoke.
"Fine."
The word was barely audible.
"I knew Mark."
Michael swore under his breath.
David felt his chest tighten.
"How?"
"We dated."
The room went still again.
"When?"
"Years ago."
"How many years?"
"Three."
"How long were you together?"
"About six months."
"Why did you lie?"
Sarah looked at him.
"Because Mark asked me to."
David laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
"Mark asked you to pretend you had never met him?"
"He said it would be awkward."
"At what point?"
"When you and I started dating."
"Why would that matter?"
"Because he was your friend."
"People date their friends' exes all the time."
"He did not want you thinking he had introduced us."
"Did he?"
Sarah hesitated.
"No."
David stared.
"That hesitation was an answer."
"I am trying to remember."
"You remember six months with him but cannot remember whether he introduced you to me?"
Sarah's face hardened.
"I met you at the Hollis dinner."
"Were you there because of Mark?"
"No."
"Were you there because of me?"
She did not answer.
Mason returned.
His expression had changed.
"What?"
David asked.
"That was my office."
"And?"
"The old patrol officer found another item."
Mason looked at Sarah.
"This one is audio."
Her fingers tightened around her phone.
"From where?"
"Emma's car."
David felt light-headed.
"Her car did not have a dash camera."
"Not a dash camera."
Mason looked at him.
"The vehicle's emergency system recorded a seventeen-second voice segment after the crash automatically triggered a service call."
"I never heard about that."
"Neither did I."
"Why?"
"It was marked corrupted."
"And now?"
"The retired officer kept a copy because he thought the file behavior was strange."
Sarah took a step backward.
Mason continued.
"A technician recovered part of it this afternoon."
"What is on it?"
"Emma."
David's knees almost gave beneath him.
Leo looked up sharply.
"Mom?"
Claire put an arm around him.
David swallowed.
"What does she say?"
Mason hesitated.
"I do not think Leo should hear it first."
Leo stood.
"I want to."
"Buddy-"
"It is Mom."
David looked at Mason.
Mason shook his head slightly.
David understood.
Whatever was on the file was not something an eight-year-old should hear in a room full of adults.
"Claire, take him to the kitchen."
Leo immediately pulled away.
"No."
David crouched.
"I am not hiding it from you forever."
"Sarah hides things."
The accusation cut across the room.
Sarah flinched.
David held Leo's shoulders gently.
"I am not Sarah."
Leo searched his face.
Then nodded.
Claire led him into the kitchen.
Mason waited until the door closed.
Then he played the recording.
Static filled the tablet speaker.
A mechanical voice said something indistinct.
Then Emma's voice came through.
Weak.
Breathless.
Terrified.
"David, if this saves...
Mark knew...
Sarah was at the garage... brakes..."
A burst of static swallowed several words.
Then Emma gasped.
"Do not let her near Leo."
The recording ended.
David did not move.
He could not.
Sarah backed into the wall.
"That is not real."
Mason looked at her.
"It came from the manufacturer archive."
"It is manipulated."
"That is possible."
Relief flickered across her face.
Mason finished the sentence.
"But unlikely."
David looked at her.
His voice sounded unfamiliar even to himself.
"What garage?"
Sarah shook her head.
"I do not know."
"What brakes?"
"I do not know."
"Why did Emma say your name?"
"I do not know."
David stepped closer.
"What did you and Mark do?"
"Nothing."
"What did you do?"
"Nothing!"
She shouted it this time.
The kitchen door opened.
Leo stood there.
Claire was behind him.
He had heard enough.
His face was white.
"Mom knew," he whispered.
Sarah looked at him.
May you like
And for the first time that night, she did not argue.
