Chapter 6 - The Voice of a Dead Man
I had forgotten the exact sound of my father's voice.
That was the part of grief nobody warned you about.
You remembered faces.
You remembered smells.
You remembered the way someone laughed.
But voices faded.
They became echoes you couldn't quite hold.
When Thomas told me Catherine Vale possessed a recording of my father, I felt something I hadn't felt since I was nine years old.
Hope.
Rebecca drove me to the secure facility where Catherine was being cared for.
Two investigators met us at the entrance.
They explained that Catherine had agreed to a recorded interview with her attorney present.
I would be allowed to speak with her afterward.
I agreed.
Catherine was fifty-four.
Her hair was streaked with gray.
Her hands trembled.
But her eyes were clear.
When she saw me, she began crying.
"Elena's daughter."
I sat beside her.
"Yes."
She reached for my hand.
"You look so much like her."
I swallowed.
"Did you know my mother?"
"She saved my life."
I couldn't speak.
Catherine explained that she had worked as a records administrator for Harrington Medical Consortium.
She discovered that patient information was being stolen and sold.
Some victims were wealthy.
Some were vulnerable.
The records were used to extort money, manipulate business decisions, and conceal illegal payments.
Victor Russo and Charles Whitcomb controlled the operation.
My father discovered the financial trail.
He helped Catherine collect evidence.
Then he told her they would go to the authorities.
Three days later, he died.
Catherine began crying.
"I was supposed to meet him that morning."
I held her hand.
"What happened?"
"He called me the night before. He said he'd found proof that someone had ordered the records destroyed."
"Who?"
She looked frightened.
"Whitcomb."
My heart pounded.
"Did my father know?"
"He suspected."
Catherine closed her eyes.
"After Daniel died, I tried to continue. Then they took my daughter."
I stared at her.
"Valentina?"
She nodded.
"Victor told me I'd never see her again if I spoke."
"Was Victor her father?"
Catherine shook her head.
"No. He was my husband, but Valentina was born before I married him. He adopted her."
I felt sick.
"Did she know?"
"No."
Catherine wiped her eyes.
"Victor raised her as his own. I was told she believed I had died."
I thought of Valentina.
Her tears.
Her fear.
Her betrayal.
Two things could be true.
She had hurt me terribly.
And she had been deceived by people far more dangerous than either of us understood.
Catherine reached toward a small table.
Her attorney handed her a sealed evidence envelope.
Inside was an old digital recorder.
"My daughter was the reason I stayed quiet," Catherine whispered. "Your mother was the reason I survived."
The investigator activated the recording.
Static filled the room.
Then a man's voice spoke.
"If anything happens to me, Catherine, give this to Elena."
I stopped breathing.
My father.
Daniel Bennett.
I covered my mouth.
The voice was older than I remembered.
Tired.
But unmistakably his.
"I've confirmed the transfers. Victor Russo and Charles Whitcomb are using Harrington to move money and conceal the sale of confidential records."
A pause.
"There's another signature on the September seventeenth transaction. Alessandro Moretti."
My chest tightened.
"But I don't believe the young man understands what he's signing. I spoke with him yesterday. He seemed genuinely shocked when I described the accounts."
I stared at the recorder.
My father continued.
"If Alessandro tells his father what I've found, I'm in danger. If he helps me, we might have a chance."
The recording crackled.
Then came the final words.
"Tell Sofia I love her. Tell her I'm doing this because I want her to grow up in a world where powerful men can't buy their way out of everything."
The recording ended.
I began sobbing.
Rebecca wrapped her arms around me.
For twenty years, I'd believed my father's final day had been ordinary.
Now I knew he'd spent it trying to protect people he'd never met.
Including Catherine.
Including Valentina.
Including me.
After the interview, Catherine gave me another piece of information.
My mother had visited her shortly before dying.
She had brought a folder containing copies of financial records.
But Catherine had refused to keep it.
"Elena said she had another place to hide it."
"Where?"
Catherine hesitated.
"She said the safest place was the one room nobody would dare disturb."
I froze.
The west guest bedroom.
My mother's room.
Alessandro had promised never to change it.
But he had taken Valentina there.
And Valentina had searched it.
I suddenly understood why my mother's final room might have been more than a place of mourning.
It might have contained the last evidence she had collected.
I called Thomas immediately.
He contacted the investigators.
They began preparing the appropriate legal steps to search the room.
But before they could act, Alessandro called.
His voice was urgent.
"Sofia, the west bedroom has been searched."
My stomach dropped.
"What?"
"Someone entered the house while I was away. They tore open the furniture."
"Did they find anything?"
"I don't know."
I closed my eyes.
"Alessandro, did you ever search that room?"
"No."
"Did you know Elena might have hidden evidence there?"
"I suspected. But I promised her I wouldn't disturb it."
I laughed bitterly.
"You kept that promise but couldn't keep your marriage vows?"
He went silent.
Then he said quietly, "I deserve that."
I stared out the window.
"Who searched it?"
"We're checking the security footage."
"Give it to the investigators."
"I already have."
That surprised me.
Then he added something else.
"There's something you need to know about Valentina."
I stiffened.
"What now?"
"She disappeared this morning."
My heart dropped.
"Disappeared?"
"Matteo says she left his house before dawn. Her phone was found in a parking garage."
I thought about Catherine.
About the daughter she'd lost.
About the people who had threatened her into silence.
"Did someone take her?"
"I don't know."
Then Alessandro said something that made me grip the phone.
"Before she disappeared, she sent me a message."
"What did it say?"
He hesitated.
"She said she finally understood why her father wanted her close to me."
I closed my eyes.
"Why?"
"Because Victor Russo knew Elena had hidden evidence in your mother's room."
The room where Alessandro had betrayed me.
The room Valentina had searched.
The room someone had torn apart.
May you like
It had become the center of everything.
And now Valentina was missing.
