Chapter 15 - The Tape from 1992
We returned to the storage unit with Detective Harris.
There were three microcassettes.
I had listened to two.
The third had a cracked label and no date.
Priya found an old recorder at an electronics repair shop willing to transfer the tape digitally while we waited.
The audio hissed.
Then Dad’s younger voice came through.
“Say it again.”
A man laughed.
Drunk.
Angry.
“You think a cheap recorder scares me?”
David Shaw.
My biological father.
Dad said, “You told Claire you cut the brake line.”
My stomach dropped.
David answered, “I told her I could. There’s a difference.”
“You followed her that night.”
“She was taking my son.”
“You hit her car.”
A long pause.
Then David said, “She should’ve pulled over.”
Nobody in the room moved.
The tape continued.
Dad’s voice shook with rage.
“You ran her off the road.”
“I scared her. She panicked. That’s on her.”
Then another voice entered.
Leonard.
Younger, but unmistakable.
“David, shut your mouth.”
The tape ended in shouting and a door slam.
I sat frozen.
My biological father had not just frightened my mother.
He had admitted causing the crash that killed her.
And Leonard had known.
Detective Harris immediately called a supervisor.
The old case would have to be reviewed. David was dead, but obstruction, fraud, evidence suppression, and current criminal conduct were another matter.
Dad had carried that tape for thirty-four years.
“Why didn’t he give it to police?” I asked.
Harris looked uncomfortable.
“Maybe he did.”
We checked the lockbox again.
There was a photocopy of a police property receipt from 1992.
One microcassette received.
Released forty-eight hours later to attorney Leonard Shaw.
The same tape.
My hands went cold.
“He got it back.”
Priya nodded slowly.
“And Raymond somehow kept or made a copy.”
My phone rang.
The hospital.
I answered instantly.
“Mr. Mercer, your father is missing from his room.”
I stood.
“What?”
“He was being taken for a short walk with staff. There was confusion near the elevators. We are searching now.”
I could barely speak.
“Check the cameras.”
“We are.”
Then a second call flashed on my screen.
Natalie.
I switched over.
She was crying so hard she could barely form words.
“Grant, I just got a call from Leonard.”
“What did he say?”
May you like
“He said if you want Raymond back safely, bring him the tape.”
