Mercer lunged toward the desk.
Two state investigators caught his arms before he reached it.
“You cannot use that,” he snapped.
“Massachusetts is a two-party consent state.”
Shaw looked at him.
“That may matter at trial.
It does not erase what is on the recording.”
Mr.
Vance pressed play.
At first, there was only the hollow echo of footsteps inside the garage.
Then Logan’s voice filled the office.
“You used my children’s names.”
I gripped the edge of the desk.
Hearing him was like being cut open.
Audrey answered with a bored sigh.
“No one touched your children.
They are numbers on a page.”
“They are five and seven years old.”
“And because they are five and seven, no one will look at their credit history for years.
By then, the accounts will be gone.”
Logan’s breathing became sharper.
“I copied everything.”
A pause followed.
When Audrey spoke again, her voice had lost its careless tone.
“Where?”
“Somewhere you will never find it.”
“You think Clara will protect you? Clara trusts me more than she trusts anyone.
If you tell her, I will say grief and stress have made you paranoid.
She will believe me.”
“Not after she sees the transfers.”
Audrey laughed.
It was the same soft laugh she had used in my kitchen while making tea after Logan’s funeral.
“Then make sure she never sees them.”
The recording ended with the sound of a car door slamming.
No one in the office spoke.
Mercer looked toward the hallway as though calculating whether he could run.
The state investigators tightened their hold on him.
My phone crackled.
Audrey had heard every word.
“Clara,” she said, “they are manipulating you.”
I nearly laughed at the absurdity of it.
“I heard your voice.”
“Logan edited recordings for work all the time.
You know that.”
“I saw you beside his car.”
“A video can be altered.”
“Where are my children?”
Audrey ignored the question.
“You are frightened and confused.
Let me help you.
Walk away from Vance.
Do not speak to those investigators.
I will bring the children home, and we will handle this as a family.”
The investigator tracing the call wrote something on a notepad and held it up for Shaw.
PHONE MOVING WEST ON ROUTE 2.
