Chapter 6: The Second Voice
Detective Reyes came to Aunt Ruth's house the next morning.
He was a compact man in his forties with a careful way of speaking — the kind of person who chose every word before he said it.
He sat at the kitchen table with a folder and a small recorder, and he looked at Noah with the particular respect adults rarely gave eight-year-olds.
"You did something very smart," he said.
"Setting up that camera."
Noah shrugged.
"I just didn't want her to say it didn't happen."
"It happened," Reyes said.
"And because of what you recorded, we can prove it." He opened the folder.
"I need to ask you about the kitchen recording.
The one from three months ago."
"Okay," Noah said.
"You recorded your father on a phone call."
"Yes."
"When you listened back — did you hear anyone else in the room with him?"
Noah frowned.
"No.
I thought he was alone."
Reyes nodded slowly.
"The audio team found a second voice in the background.
Very quiet.
Possibly in another room, or speaking softly.
We've been trying to identify it." He looked at me.
"Cara, I'd like you to listen to a short clip.
Tell me if you recognize the voice."
He placed a phone on the table and pressed play.
The recording was poor quality — the hiss of a kitchen, Dad's voice talking about account numbers and transfers.
And then, underneath it, barely there, a few words in a different voice.
*Just make sure the name isn't on it.*
I went very still.
"Can you play it again?" I said.
He played it again.
I looked at Aunt Ruth.
"That's not someone I know," I said carefully.
"But the voice — it sounds like a woman."
Reyes nodded.
"We believe so too."
"Not Melissa?"
"Melissa was at a dental appointment that afternoon.
We've confirmed it." He closed the folder.
"We're working on identifying the voice through other recordings.
But it tells us your father wasn't acting alone."
After he left, Aunt Ruth and I sat at the table for a long time.
"Who else would have been involved?" I asked.
"I don't know," she said.
But something in her face told me she had a thought she wasn't ready to say out loud.
"Aunt Ruth."
She looked at her coffee.
"Your father had a business partner before your mother passed.
A woman named Gail Fenton.
They ran a small property management company together.
After your mother's funeral, the company dissolved." She paused.
"Or appeared to."
"You think she's still involved with him."
"I think the police need to look at her."
I called Reyes back that afternoon and told him the name.
He was quiet for a moment.
"We'll look into it," he said.
"Thank you, Cara."
That evening, Dad called Aunt Ruth's landline.
She answered it in the kitchen.
I stood in the hallway and listened.
"She's not available, Daniel."
A pause.
"That's not your decision to make."
Another pause, longer.
"You're out on bail.
You're not permitted to contact the children directly.
This call may be recorded." Her voice was completely level.
"If you want to communicate with Cara or Noah, you do it through your attorney."
She hung up.
She came into the hallway and found me standing there.
"He wants to talk to you," she said.
"I know."
"You don't have to."
"I know that too." I leaned against the wall.
"What did he say?"
"That he can explain everything.
That the situation is more complicated than it looks." She folded her arms.
"That he loves you both."
I looked at the floor.
"Do you think he does?" I asked.
Aunt Ruth was quiet for a long time.
"I think he loves you the way some people love things," she said finally.
"As long as it doesn't cost them anything."
I went to bed early that night.
Noah came in again after midnight, blanket trailing behind him.
"Cara," he said.
"I remembered something."
"What?"
"The day I made the recording.
When Dad was on the phone." He sat on the edge of the sofa.
"There was a woman in the backyard.
I saw her through the kitchen window.
She was standing by the fence, just waiting.
And then Dad went outside and they talked for a few minutes and she left."
I sat up.
"Did you see her face?"
"Sort of.
She had short gray hair.
And she was wearing a red coat."
I reached for my phone.
May you like
"Noah," I said.
"I need you to tell Detective Reyes exactly what you just told me."
