Chapter 8 - The Voice Behind Daniel Langley
Raymond refused to speak over the phone.
He would only talk in the presence of detectives and his attorney.
Gabriel, Sarah, and Victoria arrived at the Manhattan precinct shortly before noon.
Raymond looked older than his photograph.
His hair had gone mostly white. His hands shook on the table.
He looked at Gabriel once and immediately looked away.
“I’m sorry.”
Gabriel sat across from him.
“You can be sorry after you tell me the truth.”
Raymond nodded.
Then he placed a small digital recorder on the table.
“I kept this because I knew someday Daniel might decide I was a liability.”
A detective pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then Daniel Langley’s voice.
“You understand the assignment?”
Raymond’s younger voice answered.
“Yes.”
Daniel again.
“The line should fail after sustained pressure. Not before.”
Gabriel clenched his jaw.
Then another voice entered.
Male.
Calm.
Familiar.
“Make sure Eleanor drives herself.”
Gabriel’s face drained of color.
Sarah looked at him.
He knew the voice.
The recording continued.
Daniel asked, “And if Gabriel is with her?”
The other man replied.
“He won’t be. I arranged Chicago.”
Gabriel stood so fast his chair fell backward.
“No.”
Sarah’s pulse raced.
She had heard the voice too.
Ethan Cole.
Raymond looked at the table.
“Ethan ordered it.”
Victoria began crying.
Gabriel walked to the wall and pressed both hands against it.
His oldest friend had not covered up Eleanor’s death.
He had engineered it.
Sarah approached carefully.
“Gabriel.”
He turned.
His expression was grief stripped of everything except rage.
“I invited him to her funeral.”
Sarah had no answer.
“I let him carry her casket.”
The room went quiet.
Raymond continued.
“Eleanor had found the fraud. Ethan had been moving Foundation money through vendors for years. Daniel helped create the companies and legal cover.”
Victoria whispered, “North Crown.”
Raymond nodded.
“North Crown was one of them.”
Gabriel returned to the table.
“And my mother?”
“She threatened to go to the FBI.”
“So Ethan killed her.”
Raymond’s eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
Sarah thought of the message on Eleanor’s photograph.
SHE SHOULD HAVE STAYED QUIET.
Not a threat from the past.
A confession of mindset.
Gabriel sat again.
“Where is Ethan now?”
Raymond looked at the detectives.
“I don’t know.”
Then he added, “But Daniel does.”
Victoria looked up.
“My father?”
“Ethan never trusted him. Daniel kept records as insurance.”
Raymond hesitated.
“There’s a private storage unit in Connecticut.”
Gabriel stared.
“Where?”
“Greenwich.”
Raymond gave the address.
Victoria’s face changed.
“I know that place.”
Everyone looked at her.
“My father used to take me there when I was a child. He called it the archive.”
Gabriel stood.
Detectives immediately began arranging a warrant.
But Sarah kept watching Victoria.
“You said he used to take you there.”
Victoria nodded.
“What did you see?”
Victoria looked sick.
“Boxes.”
“What kind?”
“Legal files. Old tapes. Financial documents.”
She paused.
“And one red metal case he never let me touch.”
Raymond’s face went white.
“What?”
He stared at Victoria.
“That case belongs to Ethan.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
May you like
“What’s inside?”
Raymond whispered, “Everything.”
