Chapter 9 - THE RECORDING
Detective Monroe played the recording in a conference room at Austin Police headquarters.
The room was too cold.
The table was too clean.
The fluorescent lights made everyone look sick.
Elena sat beside me.
Agent Bell stood against the back wall with his arms folded.
Teresa was not there.
Monroe had sent officers to find her after the file was decrypted, but her house was empty and her phone was off.
That fact sat inside me like a stone.
"The audio is rough," Monroe said.
"It appears to have been recorded from a phone inside a purse or pocket."
"Sebastian recorded her?"
"Most likely."
She pressed play.
Static filled the speaker.
Then Teresa's voice emerged.
You said you would leave them alone.
A man answered.
His voice was deep and controlled.
You were paid to provide information, Teresa, not negotiate terms.
My hands curled into fists.
Teresa whispered something too soft to understand.
The man spoke again.
Tomorrow night.
Highway 71.
Tell me which route they will take.
Teresa's voice shook.
They are my sons.
Then keep them from making stupid choices.
A pause.
Where are they meeting the agent?
Teresa answered.
I don't know.
The man laughed quietly.
You know enough.
Another stretch of static.
Then Teresa said the words that hollowed me out.
They'll stop at the Shell outside Bastrop around eight.
Elena grabbed my hand.
I barely felt it.
The recording continued.
The man said, Good.
Teresa replied, You promised nobody would get hurt.
The man answered, Then pray your boys cooperate.
The audio ended.
Nobody moved.
I stared at the dark speaker on the table.
"That's Charles Vale?"
Bell nodded.
"Voice comparison is preliminary, but yes."
"She gave him the gas station."
"Yes."
"She led them there."
"She gave him information that appears to have enabled surveillance."
I looked at Bell.
"Stop making murder sound administrative."
His jaw tightened.
"We do not yet know whether Vale ordered the crash."
"He said pray your boys cooperate."
"I heard it."
"One of them burned to death the next night."
"I heard that too."
Monroe stepped in.
"The important question is where Teresa is now."
"Running."
Elena said it before I could.
I looked at her.
"Maybe."
She raised an eyebrow.
"You're using that word now?"
"I hate you."
"Good."
Monroe slid a printed bank record toward me.
"The seventy-five thousand dollars went into an account Teresa controlled."
"Where did it go?"
"Most of it was transferred out within forty-eight hours."
"To where?"
"A hospital foundation and a private medical debt servicer."
I frowned.
"Hospital?"
"Your father-in-law had cancer before he died, correct?"
"Yes."
"The payments match outstanding treatment debt from that period."
I stared at the numbers.
Teresa had spent years paying medical bills after her husband died.
She rarely complained.
I remembered Santiago once offering to help and Teresa refusing.
"Vale bought her with debt," Elena said.
"That's one interpretation," Bell replied.
"What's the other?"
"Blackmail."
He placed another document beside the bank record.
It was an old loan agreement bearing Teresa's signature.
Her husband had borrowed against their home during cancer treatment.
The lender had later been acquired by a company linked to Vale.
"He owned the debt," Bell said.
"He could have taken her house."
I felt no sympathy at first.
Then memory interfered.
Teresa at her husband's bedside.
Teresa selling jewelry after he died.
Teresa refusing to let her sons pay because she said their families came first.
None of it excused what she had done.
But betrayal rarely arrived wearing only one face.
"She still chose to tell him," I said.
"Yes," Monroe replied.
I appreciated the lack of excuses.
"What happens if we find her?"
"We ask questions."
"Arrest her?"
"Possibly."
"For what?"
"That depends on what she knew and what prosecutors can prove."
I stood.
"I want to go home."
Bell said, "That's still not safe."
"Then I want to go somewhere that isn't this room."
Monroe looked at him.
"Let her breathe."
Elena and I stepped into the hallway.
My phone vibrated almost immediately.
Unknown number.
I stared at it.
Elena whispered, "Santiago?"
I answered.
"Hello?"
Teresa's voice said, "Mariana, please don't hang up."
Every muscle in my body tightened.
"Where are you?"
"I can't tell you."
"Then hang up yourself."
"Please."
She was crying.
"The police are looking for you."
"I know."
"Good."
"You heard the recording."
"Yes."
A broken sound came through the phone.
"I never thought they would hurt them."
"You gave Vale the gas station."
"He said he only wanted the files."
"And you believed a criminal because he promised nicely?"
"I was desperate."
"Sebastian died because of your desperation."
Silence.
Then Teresa whispered, "I know."
My throat closed.
I hated those words from her almost as much as I hated them from Santiago.
"Where are you?"
"I need to fix something first."
"You don't get to fix this alone."
"I should have listened to Sebastian."
"About what?"
"He knew I had talked to Vale."
I stopped breathing.
"Before the crash?"
"He found the payment."
"So that's why he wrote not to trust you."
"Yes."
"Did Santiago know?"
"Not then."
"When did you tell him?"
"After the funeral."
I leaned against the wall.
"He knew for three years that you helped Vale find them."
"Yes."
"And he still kept you close to Camila."
"He thought punishing me would expose him."
"Always another excuse."
"He hated me for a long time."
"Maybe he still should."
Teresa cried silently for several seconds.
Then she said, "Vale contacted me this morning."
I straightened.
"What?"
Elena moved closer.
"What did he want?"
"The drives."
"How does he know we found them?"
Teresa did not answer.
My eyes moved toward the conference room door.
Bell and Monroe were still inside.
Someone had leaked the recovery already.
"Teresa."
"He knows."
"Who told him?"
"I don't know."
"Where does he want to meet?"
"I'm not telling you."
"Then you're doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"Deciding for everyone else."
She went silent.
"You decided Santiago was safer as Sebastian."
"You decided I was safer grieving a lie."
"You decided Camila was safer without her father."
My voice hardened.
"And now you're deciding you can meet Vale alone."
"I have something he wants."
"What?"
"The original key."
"To what?"
"Sebastian's company files."
"Those are on the drives."
"Not all of them."
"What else is there?"
"Proof of who inside law enforcement was paid."
My pulse spiked.
"You have it?"
"I know where it is."
"Tell me."
"No."
"Teresa."
"If I give it to police and the leak is still there, Vale gets it before anyone can protect you."
I looked toward the conference room again.
"Who is the leak?"
"Sebastian believed it was federal."
"Price?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Teresa lowered her voice.
"The initials in his notebook were A.B."
My entire body went cold.
Aaron Bell.
The federal agent standing less than thirty feet away.
"Are you sure?"
"No."
"Then why say it?"
"Because if I'm right, he already knows you're helping the police."
The conference room door opened.
Agent Bell stepped into the hallway.
His eyes went directly to the phone in my hand.
"Who is that?" he asked.
I stared at him.
Teresa whispered through the phone.
"Do not trust him."
May you like
Then the line went dead.
