Chapter 9: The Recording That Shouldn't Exist
Chapter 9: The Recording That Shouldn't Exist
By noon...
The financial scandal was no longer the biggest story in America.
Every major news network had interrupted its regular programming.
BREAKING NEWS
ASHFORD GLOBAL UNDER FEDERAL INVESTIGATION
MISSING ACCOUNTANT CASE REOPENED
Outside Ashford Global Headquarters, hundreds of reporters crowded behind police barricades.
Helicopters hovered overhead.
Social media exploded with speculation.
Inside the executive boardroom...
No one said a word.
Every eye remained fixed on the small black hard drive lying in the center of the conference table.
A piece of plastic no larger than a thumb.
Yet it had the power to destroy lives.
The lead digital forensic examiner entered carrying a reinforced evidence case.
"I'm Dr. Hannah Collins."
She placed the drive onto a portable recovery station.
"The storage device suffered deliberate damage."
Nathan's heart pounded.
Damage.
He remembered.
The night Daniel Reeves disappeared...
Someone had smashed the drive with a hammer.
Nathan himself had watched the pieces scatter across the office floor.
He had believed every file was gone forever.
Dr. Collins continued.
"But..."
"The memory chips survived."
Marcus folded his arms.
"Recovery estimate?"
"Eighty to ninety-five percent."
Nathan felt his mouth go dry.
Across the table, Richard Ashcroft quietly studied his former son-in-law.
"You look nervous."
Nathan forced a smile.
"I'm not."
Richard nodded.
"Good."
"Then you'll have no objection to waiting."
Nathan said nothing.
Because waiting had become the cruelest punishment of all.
Hours passed.
The forensic team worked in complete silence.
One damaged sector after another slowly came back to life.
Directories appeared.
Emails.
Spreadsheets.
Financial records.
Then...
A folder.
Its title froze everyone in the room.
INSURANCE
Dr. Collins frowned.
"Interesting."
Marcus stepped closer.
"Open it."
Inside were dozens of encrypted audio files.
Some were only a few seconds long.
Others lasted hours.
Daniel Reeves had secretly recorded meetings.
Not one.
Not two.
Dozens.
Nathan's breathing became shallow.
Daniel...
hadn't trusted him.
The first recording played.
Routine accounting discussions.
Nothing unusual.
The second.
Budget approvals.
The third.
Supplier negotiations.
Still nothing.
Nathan slowly relaxed.
Maybe...
the important recording really had been destroyed.
Then Dr. Collins opened the final file.
Unlike the others...
It had no title.
Only a date.
October 17
Her fingers hovered above the keyboard.
Marcus looked toward Richard.
"This was the night before Daniel disappeared."
Richard nodded.
"Play it."
Static filled the room.
Then voices.
Three people.
The first belonged to Daniel.
"We can't keep doing this."
The second...
Celeste.
"You don't have a choice."
Then...
Nathan.
Calm.
Cold.
"If you walk away now..."
"You'll destroy all of us."
The room fell silent.
Everyone listened.
Daniel answered,
"I've already copied everything."
Nathan's recorded voice changed.
"What did you say?"
"I made copies."
"If anything happens to me..."
"They'll know."
The recording stopped.
Only static remained.
Dr. Collins checked the waveform.
"The rest is corrupted."
Nathan immediately stood.
"That's all?"
Dr. Collins looked disappointed.
"Apparently."
Nathan exhaled for the first time in hours.
The conversation proved financial crimes.
Nothing more.
No murder.
No confession.
Perhaps...
he could still survive this.
Marcus wasn't convinced.
"Run a deep recovery."
Dr. Collins nodded.
"We already are."
She magnified the damaged portion of the file.
Tiny fragments of audio still remained buried beneath corrupted sectors.
Piece by piece...
The software began rebuilding them.
One second.
Three seconds.
Seven seconds.
Then...
A new voice emerged.
Weak.
Broken.
Daniel again.
"...if I disappear..."
Another burst of static.
"...not an accident..."
More static.
Then...
A loud impact.
Someone shouting.
The recording ended.
Nathan closed his eyes.
His hands began shaking.
Richard noticed immediately.
"What happened after that, Nathan?"
Nathan looked up.
"I don't know."
Marcus quietly replied,
"But you do."
Before anyone could speak again, one of the federal agents received a phone call.
He listened for several moments.
His expression changed completely.
He walked directly to Marcus.
"We have something."
Marcus took the phone.
"What?"
"The harbor police."
"They recovered a vehicle."
Nathan's head snapped upward.
The agent continued.
"It belongs to Daniel Reeves."
Silence.
Marcus asked,
"Anything inside?"
"Yes."
"A human blood sample."
"And..."
He hesitated.
"We found Daniel's watch."
Richard slowly turned toward Nathan.
"The investigation just changed."
Nathan suddenly pushed his chair backward.
"I want my lawyer."
"You'll have one," the lead federal agent replied calmly.
"But you're not leaving."
Nathan looked toward the doors.
Two agents were already standing there.
Then toward the windows.
Police helicopters still circled outside.
Every exit was covered.
For the first time in his life...
Nathan Ashford understood what it felt like to be trapped.
Across the room, I quietly watched him.
Months earlier...
I would have pitied him.
Now...
I only felt empty.
Richard noticed the look in my eyes.
"You expected this?"
I nodded slowly.
"I always believed the financial crimes would come out."
He studied me.
"But not this."
"No."
I looked toward the damaged hard drive.
"I never knew Daniel was keeping records too."
Marcus closed the evidence case.
"Then someone else wanted the truth preserved."
Late that afternoon...
Dr. Collins received another notification from the recovery software.
She frowned.
"There are hidden files."
Marcus looked over her shoulder.
"Hidden?"
"They're encrypted separately."
Richard asked,
"Can you open them?"
Dr. Collins nodded slowly.
"Eventually."
"How long?"
"By tomorrow morning."
She looked around the room before adding quietly,
"But judging by the encryption..."
"Whoever created these files..."
"...expected someone to try very hard to erase them."
Nathan slowly lowered his head.
Because he remembered something no one else did.
The last thing Daniel Reeves had said before walking out of that office.
"The truth always leaves a copy."
At the time...
Nathan had laughed.
Now...
Those seven words echoed inside his mind like a death sentence.
May you like
And somewhere inside the encrypted files waiting to be unlocked...
The final copy of the truth was still waiting to be heard.
