The Last Recording
Chapter 15 - The Last Recording
Months after the wooden plane was opened, investigators recovered another file from a storage device Gabriel had left with an independent accountant. The accountant had kept it after Gabriel's death because he did not trust the people requesting it.
The recording showed a meeting in a warehouse office. Gabriel confronted Vincent about the fraudulent invoices and money moving through Calder's companies. Vincent admitted knowing about the transfers but insisted the arrangement was temporary and profitable.
Then Gabriel said, "If you don't stop, I'm going to the authorities."
Vincent replied, "You don't understand what Calder will do if you pull that thread."
Gabriel leaned forward. "Then help me stop him."
The recording ended before Vincent answered.
It did not prove who caused the crash. But it directly contradicted Vincent's claim that he'd known nothing about the questionable payments.
Angelo listened once, alone. His son's voice was strong and impatient, so vividly alive that the old man almost expected him to walk into the room and ask why his father looked sad.
Instead, Angelo heard the silence afterward.
He took the file to the appropriate authorities and met with his legal team about his own exposure concerning the family's historic operations. His cooperation would not erase that past. He knew it.
That afternoon, Sofia found him on the porch.
"What did you learn?" she asked.
"Gabriel gave Vincent a chance to help him."
She nodded slowly. "That sounds like Gabriel."
Angelo looked toward the lake. "Do you think I gave Vincent too many chances?"
Sofia answered carefully. "You kept trusting him after reasons to question him appeared. But we're not going to solve that by guessing what you should have known on every day of the past. We can decide what we do now."
Angelo exhaled.
Matteo came running from the house carrying a blue kite. "Nonno! There's wind!"
Angelo stood.
"Then let's go use it."
They spent the next hour trying to make the kite rise above the grass. It repeatedly crashed into the ground. Each time Matteo laughed, picked it up, and tried again.
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Angelo watched him and thought about Gabriel's words: Help me stop him.
He couldn't give his son the help he'd asked for. But he could finally honor the request in the only way left: by helping uncover what happened and refusing to let another generation grow up afraid.
