Chapter 2 - The Phone Contains Three Voices
Daniel did not press play immediately.
That was the first thing Rachel noticed.
Her eyes kept returning to the black phone in his hand, but Daniel’s attention stayed on Ethan.
The boy was still crouched inside the narrow cavity behind the wall, shoulders covered in white plaster dust, knees pulled tightly against his chest.
“Come on,” Daniel said softly. “You’re safe now.”
Ethan looked at Rachel again.
Then at Michael.
His breathing became faster.
Daniel followed the boy’s gaze.
Rachel stood halfway down the hallway in a cream sweater and dark slacks, one hand pressed flat against her throat.
Michael was beside the staircase.
He had stopped pretending to be confused.
“Daniel,” Rachel said, “maybe we should get Ethan cleaned up first.”
Daniel turned toward her.
“You knew he was missing.”
“No.”
“You were the one who told me he’d gone outside.”
“I thought he had.”
Michael finally spoke.
“This is getting ridiculous.”
Daniel looked at him.
“A six-year-old boy was inside a wall.”
“He could’ve crawled in there.”
Daniel glanced at the broken drywall.
The opening had been sealed from the hallway side.
Fresh screws.
Fresh joint compound.
Paint that was still slightly brighter than the surrounding wall.
Ethan had not crawled in.
Someone had closed him inside.
Daniel slid one arm through the opening and helped Ethan climb out.
The boy’s legs buckled the moment his shoes touched the floor.
Daniel caught him.
Rachel stepped forward.
Ethan flinched so violently that Daniel turned his body between them.
“Don’t,” Ethan whispered.
Rachel froze.
Her face changed.
Not anger.
Something closer to panic.
Daniel knelt.
“Ethan, did Rachel put you in there?”
The child shook his head.
Then he looked toward Michael.
Michael’s jaw tightened.
Ethan whispered, “He said I had to stay quiet.”
The hallway went dead silent.
Michael laughed once.
“He’s scared and confused.”
Ethan immediately grabbed Daniel’s sleeve.
“He said nobody would believe me.”
Daniel stood.
Every protective instinct in him sharpened at once.
Michael raised both hands.
“Daniel, think about what you’re doing.”
“I am.”
“You’ve known me fifteen years.”
“And I’ve known Ethan his whole life.”
Rachel whispered, “Please don’t make this worse.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Worse than finding him sealed inside a wall?”
Nobody answered.
Daniel looked down at the phone.
The battery showed eleven percent.
Ethan had opened a recording application.
One file sat at the top.
2:13:47.
More than two hours.
Daniel tapped it.
Michael stepped forward.
“Don’t.”
Daniel’s thumb stopped.
That one word told him everything.
He pressed play.
At first, there was only muffled movement.
Then Rachel’s voice.
“He wasn’t supposed to see the documents.”
Michael answered.
“He saw enough.”
Daniel felt Ethan tighten beside him.
The recording continued.
Rachel sounded frightened.
“We cannot involve a child.”
Michael’s voice came sharper.
“We already involved him when you left the office unlocked.”
Daniel looked at Rachel.
She stared at the floor.
Then a third voice entered the recording.
A man.
Older.
Calm.
Daniel recognized him immediately.
His father.
Charles Whitmore.
Daniel’s grip tightened around the phone.
Charles had died six months earlier.
At least, that was what Daniel had been told.
On the recording, Charles said:
“If Daniel ever finds out what this house was used for, all of us are finished.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Michael lunged.
Daniel pulled the phone away.
“No!”
The shout echoed across the marble hall.
Ethan began crying.
Daniel shoved the phone into his pocket and lifted the boy into his arms.
Rachel looked shattered.
Michael looked furious.
And Daniel suddenly understood something he had not even considered.
Ethan had not been hidden merely because he saw something.
He had been hidden because he heard a dead man speaking.
Daniel looked at Rachel.
“My father died in February.”
Rachel’s lips trembled.
May you like
Daniel stepped closer.
“So tell me why he was talking in this house three nights ago.”
