Chapter 4 - THE LISTENING WALL
We drove back to the mansion in silence. Evelyn’s warning rang in my ears like a bell.
*Do not open that box. Or you will regret it. Just like Arthur did.*
How did she know? We had only left the bank minutes ago. Who was watching us? Who had told her?
I pulled into the driveway and stopped the car. Beside me, Collins checked his watch.
“She is in police custody,” he said. “Or was. She cannot be watching you personally.”
“Unless she has help,” I said. “Unless someone else knows. Someone inside the house.”
We went inside together. Mrs. Hale met us in the hallway. Noah was asleep on the sofa.
“No one has been here,” she whispered. “Only the phone rang once. I answered it. The caller hung up without speaking.”
My pulse quickened.
Collins and I went straight to the study. Arthur’s letter said the recording device was hidden in the wall behind the heavy oak bookshelf, somewhere near the bottom right corner.
We pulled the shelf away from the wall. There, set into the plaster beneath a loose panel, was a small, black device no bigger than a deck of cards. A tiny red light still blinked.
“It’s still running,” Collins breathed. “It records continuously and saves to internal memory. Arthur was brilliant. He knew exactly where to place it.”
He carried the device to the desk and connected it to his laptop. We sat side by side as the files loaded—dozens of audio recordings, organized by date.
Collins scrolled to the most recent. “Start from the beginning of Arthur’s final week. If anything happened… it will be here.”
We listened.
Most evenings, Evelyn came alone. She would bring tea. They would speak about household matters, the business, the family. Her voice was always polite, attentive, the perfect devoted wife.
But then we reached the final evening. The night before Arthur died.
Collins pressed play.
Evelyn’s voice, colder than I had ever heard it, filled the room.
“You changed the will.”
Arthur’s voice—weak, but steady. “I did.”
“You gave everything to that illegitimate child.”
“He is my grandson,” Arthur said. “And he is worth more than you or Daniel ever were.”
“I have waited forty years for this,” Evelyn said. “Forty years of being the perfect wife, the perfect hostess, the perfect mother. And you throw it all away on a baby.”
“Evelyn, step away from me.”
“Tell me why,” she said. “Tell me why you chose them over us.”
“Because you are cruel,” Arthur said. “Because you have always been cruel. And because I know what you did.”
Silence stretched long and thin.
“What did I do?” Evelyn asked. Her voice had dropped to a whisper.
“You know what I mean,” Arthur said. “The hospital. Twenty years ago. The night Daniel’s first wife died.”
I gasped. Collins shot me a look.
“Who?” I whispered.
“Listen,” Collins said.
On the recording, Evelyn laughed—a sharp, terrible sound.
“So you found out,” she said. “I did what was necessary. She was weak. She was standing in the way of everything. And I will not let a repeat of that mistake happen now.”
“You poisoned me,” Arthur said. It was not a question.
“I gave you exactly what you gave me,” Evelyn replied. “Nothing less. And now—drink your tea, Arthur. There is no point in fighting it.”
“I will not drink it.”
“Then I will make you drink it.”
There was the sound of a struggle—chair scraping, glass shattering, Arthur’s gasp. Then Evelyn’s voice, calm and terrifying.
“Sleep well, Arthur. And when you see my son’s first wife in the afterlife… tell her I sent you.”
The recording ended.
We sat in stunned silence. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold myself upright.
“Daniel had a first wife?” I asked. “He never told me.”
Collins looked grave. “Her name was Sarah. She died twenty years ago now. Sudden illness. Daniel was devastated. He rarely speaks of her. And Arthur… he told me shortly before he died that he had begun to suspect Sarah’s death was not natural either.”
I stared at him. “Evelyn killed her?”
“Arthur believed so. But he had no proof. Not until this recording.”
I leaned forward, my mind racing. “If Evelyn killed Sarah… and killed Arthur… then what about Noah? What about me? If we stand in her way—”
“Then we are in danger,” Collins said firmly. “And so is Noah. That is why Arthur left everything to you. He knew Evelyn would never harm a child who stood to inherit—until she had no other choice.”
My blood ran cold.
“But she did harm him,” I said quietly. “Yesterday. She humiliated him. She tried to break him. She knows he is the heir—and she did it anyway.”
“Because she still believes she can win,” Collins said. “She thinks she can scare you into giving it back. Or discredit you. Or—”
He stopped.
“Or what?” I pressed.
“Or arrange another accident,” Collins finished. “Just like she did with Sarah. Just like she did with Arthur.”
We sat in the dim light of the study. Outside, the sun had set. Shadows lengthened across the floor.
“Then we have to go to the police,” I said. “We have the recording. We have the journal. We have the letter.”
Collins hesitated.
“What?” I demanded.
“The recording is incomplete,” he said. “We hear the struggle. We hear her threaten him. But we do not hear her administer the poison. And her attorney will argue that this is an illegally obtained recording—possibly inadmissible in court.”
“Then what do we do?”
Collins looked at me.
“We keep digging. Arthur said she left a trail. And we need to find it—before she posts bail and comes back to finish what she started.”
My phone buzzed on the desk. A text message. Unknown sender.
I read it.
*ONE DOWN. TWO TO GO.*
My heart stopped.
Collins leaned over. “What is it?”
I showed him the screen.
He stood up quickly and drew the curtains. “Emily, pack a bag. Take Noah. Leave the house tonight. Go somewhere safe. Somewhere no one knows.”
“I am not running,” I said. “Not from her. Not from anyone.”
“Emily—”
“She killed Sarah,” I said. “She killed Arthur. And if we let her, she will kill again. I am not running away. I am staying. And I am finishing what Arthur started.”
Collins looked at me—at the set of my jaw, the fire in my eyes. Slowly, he nodded.
“Very well. But you must be careful. Watch Noah every second. Do not trust anyone. And remember—she has been playing this game longer than we have. She knows every move before you make it.”
He packed the recording device and the journal back into his briefcase.
“I will take this to a judge I trust,” he said. “Work on admissibility. Try to build a case strong enough to keep her in jail until trial. You stay here. Stay safe. And lock every door.”
He left. I stood alone in the study, the text message burning on my screen.
*ONE DOWN. TWO TO GO.*
One down—Arthur. Two to go—who? Me? And Noah? Or… Daniel?
I walked to the window and looked out across the dark lawn. Somewhere out there, someone was watching. Someone who knew our every move. Someone who had sent that message.
Suddenly, I remembered something Daniel had said before he left.
*She knows things. Secrets about what really happened to Arthur in his final days.*
And something else—Arthur’s words on the recording.
*I know what you did.*
Evelyn had not acted alone. I realized it then, with a clarity that made my knees weak. She could not have watched Arthur every moment. She could not have known about the safety deposit box minutes after we opened it—not without help.
There was an accomplice. Someone close to us. Someone who wanted Arthur dead. Someone who wanted me and Noah dead too.
I went upstairs to check on Noah. I opened the bedroom door quietly.
The window was wide open. The curtains billowed in the night breeze.
The bed was empty.
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And pinned to the pillow, written in silver ink on a scrap of mourning stationery, was a single sentence:
*HE IS WITH US. COME FIND HIM IF YOU DARE.*
