Chapter 12 - The Man Who Knew Too Much
Emily was waiting when I returned.
Lily had finally fallen asleep.
Mrs. Patterson sat beside her in the guest room, reading quietly.
Rebecca was at the dining table with a laptop.
Emily stood by the window.
She turned when I entered.
"Did you find it?"
I nodded.
"The box was there."
She closed her eyes.
"Thank God."
Then she noticed my expression.
"Jimmy?"
I placed Michael Avery's photograph on the table.
"Ryan came to the farmhouse."
Emily went pale.
"What?"
"He tried to get inside."
"Did he hurt you?"
"No. The officers were there."
She exhaled.
Then I asked the question that had been burning inside me.
"Why did Michael call you before he died?"
Emily stared at the photograph.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Rebecca looked up.
"Emily?"
My sister slowly sat down.
"Because he was afraid of Ryan."
"I know that part."
"There's more."
I pulled out a chair.
"Then tell me."
Emily rubbed her hands together.
"Michael came to our house the night before he disappeared."
"Did Ryan know?"
"No."
"What did he want?"
"He wanted me to convince Ryan to stop moving money between companies."
She looked at me.
"He said if Ryan didn't stop, they would all go to prison."
"Why didn't he go to the police?"
"He was planning to."
I leaned forward.
"What happened?"
Emily swallowed.
"Michael brought a folder. He told me to keep it somewhere safe."
"The folder at Mom's house?"
She nodded.
"Then he told me something strange."
"What?"
"He said if anything happened to him, I shouldn't believe the accident story."
Rebecca stopped typing.
I stared at Emily.
"Why would he say that?"
"He'd received threats."
"From Ryan?"
"He didn't say directly."
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
"He told me he had made a terrible mistake trusting someone."
I looked at the photograph.
"What happened next?"
"He left."
"And the next day?"
"Ryan told me Michael had gone fishing."
She looked at her hands.
"Two days later, the police found his body."
I felt sick.
"Did you tell them Michael came to see you?"
Emily shook her head.
I stared at her.
"Why not?"
"Ryan told me Michael had been drinking and that his family didn't need rumors."
"Emily."
"I know."
Her voice broke.
"I know I should have said something."
I tried to control my anger.
"Why did you keep quiet?"
She looked toward the bedroom where Lily slept.
"Because Ryan told me if I started spreading accusations, he'd take our daughter."
I sat back.
There it was again.
The same threat.
The same fear.
The same man using a child as leverage.
Emily wiped her face.
"I was scared. And I didn't have proof Ryan caused Michael's death."
Rebecca spoke gently.
"You can give investigators everything you know now. It's important not to guess about things you didn't witness."
Emily nodded.
"I will."
Then she reached into her purse.
"I have something else."
She removed an old phone.
The screen was cracked.
The case was covered in scratches.
"Michael gave me this the night he came over."
I stared.
"What is it?"
"His backup phone."
"Why didn't you put it in the box?"
"Because I thought Ryan might find it."
"Where did you keep it?"
"With Nora's help, I hid it among my belongings at Havenridge."
Rebecca leaned forward.
"Does it still work?"
Emily nodded.
"It was damaged, but one of the technicians Nora knew recovered some of the data."
She placed it on the table.
I looked at her.
"What did he recover?"
"Messages."
"From whom?"
Emily hesitated.
Then she said, "Margaret."
Rebecca's expression changed.
"Margaret Price?"
Emily nodded.
The phone contained several messages sent to Michael during the weeks before his death.
Most involved financial disagreements.
Then the tone changed.
One message warned Michael not to interfere with an acquisition.
Another accused him of violating a confidentiality agreement.
The final recovered exchange was short.
Michael: I have the original records. If Ryan doesn't tell the investors, I will.
Margaret: Think carefully about the consequences for your family.
Michael: I'm done being scared.
There was no response from Margaret.
At least none that had been recovered.
I stared at the screen.
"That's it?"
Emily shook her head.
"There's a voice message."
Rebecca suggested preserving the device for forensic examination.
We made sure the original remained available to investigators.
Emily then played a separate copy Nora had helped preserve.
Michael's voice filled the room.
"Emily, it's Mike."
He sounded nervous.
"I'm sorry to drag you into this."
A pause.
"I don't know who to trust anymore."
I leaned forward.
His breathing was audible.
"Ryan's been hiding money. Margaret knows. Keller's name keeps coming up in payments I can't explain."
A car horn sounded somewhere in the recording.
Michael lowered his voice.
"If anything happens to me, don't let Ryan tell you I was drunk."
Another pause.
Then he said, "There's a meeting tomorrow night. Ryan says we're going fishing afterward to talk things through."
I looked at Emily.
Her face was white.
Michael continued.
"I don't want to go. But he says it's the only way to settle this without destroying the company."
The message ended.
Nobody moved.
Finally, Rebecca spoke.
"This is significant information. It doesn't establish what happened on the water, but investigators need it."
Emily nodded.
"I know."
I looked at the photograph.
Michael smiling beside Ryan.
Two business partners.
Two men who had built a company together.
One dead.
The other willing to destroy his own wife to protect what he'd stolen.
I sat back.
"Where's Michael's family?"
Emily whispered, "His widow moved to Oregon."
I stared at her.
"Does she know?"
"Not everything."
"Then she needs to."
Rebecca agreed to help pass the relevant information to investigators and facilitate contact through appropriate channels.
But before we could make another call, her phone vibrated.
She read a message.
Her expression became grave.
"What is it?" I asked.
She looked at Emily.
"Police found Ryan's car."
"Where?"
"Near a private airfield."
My stomach tightened.
"Was he there?"
"No."
"What about Margaret?"
Rebecca looked down at the message again.
"She was seen arriving in another vehicle."
Emily stood.
"They're leaving."
Rebecca shook her head.
"Authorities are checking the information."
Then she continued.
"There's something else."
I looked at her.
"Tell me."
"A private aircraft associated with one of Margaret's companies had a flight plan filed for tonight."
"To where?"
Rebecca hesitated.
"Monterrey."
Emily gripped the back of her chair.
"Mexico."
I remembered the contingency document.
The proposed transfer.
The plan to make Emily disappear again.
And suddenly I understood.
Ryan and Margaret weren't necessarily trying to escape separately.
They might be attempting to leave together.
With whatever money and records they could still reach.
But when I looked at Emily, she was staring at her phone.
"What?" I asked.
She turned the screen toward me.
May you like
An incoming message from Ryan.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED DEAD.
