Chapter 5
The phone had no power.
Grant stared at it anyway.
Two years.
He remembered the night Olivia died.
The call.
The ambulance lights.
Renata standing in the kitchen, crying.
Marcus telling everyone Olivia’s phone had shattered near the back steps.
Grant had never asked to see it.
He had been holding Lily.
A two-year-old child who had stopped speaking before sunrise.
Now the phone sat intact in his hand.
Lily touched the screen.
“Mommy talked to it.”
Grant looked at her.
“What did she say?”
Lily shook her head.
Too much.
He stopped asking.
Downstairs, Renata was no longer pretending calm.
“You have no right to go through Olivia’s things!”
Grant almost laughed.
It was his house.
His late wife.
His daughter.
Yet Renata sounded like he had broken into hers.
He carried the phone downstairs.
Renata saw it.
Her entire face changed.
Marcus heard from the study.
“Renata?”
Grant held it up.
“You said it broke.”
Renata recovered quickly.
“I was told it broke.”
“By whom?”
“Marcus.”
From the study:
“Don’t drag me into this.”
Grant looked toward the door.
Too late for that.
He found an old charger.
The phone powered on after nine minutes.
No password.
Olivia hated passwords.
She said if something happened to her, Grant should never need permission to reach her.
The gallery contained ordinary life.
Lily sleeping.
Coffee.
Garden flowers.
Grant wearing flour on his shirt.
Then the last week.
Photos changed.
Doorways.
A black car.
Marcus outside the house when he claimed to be elsewhere.
Renata speaking to someone beyond the garden fence.
Grant’s expression hardened.
Renata laughed nervously.
“You’re interpreting random pictures.”
Then Grant opened audio recordings.
Seven files.
The first six were short.
Wind.
Movement.
Fragments.
The seventh lasted twelve minutes.
Grant pressed play.
Olivia’s voice filled the room.
Quiet.
Breathing hard.
Then Marcus.
“You should have stayed out of it.”
Renata’s voice followed.
“Just tell us where the key is.”
Grant looked at her.
Renata stopped breathing.
The recording continued.
Olivia:
“Grant will know.”
Marcus laughed.
“By then he’ll be too busy burying what’s left.”
Grant’s face went cold.
Renata whispered:
“Turn it off.”
Nobody moved.
Her recorded voice continued.
“You’re making this worse, Olivia.”
Then Olivia:
“I saw who you brought into our house.”
Static.
Movement.
Marcus:
“You saw nothing.”
Olivia:
“I saw enough.”
The recording cut.
Not finished.
Corrupted.
Grant stared at the phone.
Renata suddenly smiled.
Relief.
“No murder.”
Grant looked at her.
“What?”
She realized.
Too late.
Renata continued quickly.
“You heard an argument.”
Grant stood.
“I never said murder.”
Silence.
Lily watched from the doorway.
Renata looked at the child.
Then back at Grant.
May you like
Grant’s voice became quiet.
“Why were you waiting to hear murder?”
