Chapter 6: Cara's Voice
Hannah pressed play.
The video was shot on a phone, handheld, slightly unsteady.
The room behind Cara was plain — white walls, a window with the blinds drawn.
She was sitting on the edge of a bed, and she looked thin in a way that was recent, the kind of thinness that arrives quickly and doesn't leave.
But her eyes were clear.
She looked directly into the camera.
"If you're watching this," Cara said, "then you're Hannah.
And I'm sorry it took this long for us to find each other.
I'm sorry it's this way."
Hannah's throat closed.
Dominic sat very still beside her.
"I don't have a lot of time to explain everything, so I'm going to say the most important things first." Cara shifted slightly.
"Victor Renn raised me.
I know that sounds like it should mean something, but it doesn't.
He raised me the way someone raises a piece of equipment.
I was useful to him.
I was introduced to Dominic because Dominic was building something Renn wanted access to.
I didn't know that at first.
By the time I did, I loved Dominic and I had three daughters and leaving wasn't simple."
She paused.
"When I found out what Renn had done — to our father, to me, and what I believe he intends to do to my girls — I started collecting everything I could.
The files on this drive are the result of fourteen months of work.
I need you to understand that these are not copies.
Some of these documents exist only here.
Renn has spent a great deal of money making sure the originals disappeared."
She looked at the camera steadily.
"I also need you to understand something about Dominic." A slight pause.
"He is not a gentle man.
The world he operates in is not a gentle world.
But he has never once lied to me.
And he loves those girls in a way that is real.
If you're watching this with him, it means the girls found you, which means he brought you in rather than shutting you out.
That tells you what you need to know."
Dominic looked at the floor.
"The most important file is labeled RV-MED-TRANSFER.
It is the financial record of a payment made from one of Renn's holding companies to a private account in Lisbon.
The account belongs to Dr.
Henrique Faro, who signed my d*ath certificate." She said it plainly, without drama.
"That payment was made six weeks before I d*ed.
I found it because Renn made the mistake of using a financial structure I had access to — he forgot I could read the accounts.
He forgot because he never thought of me as someone who would look."
She almost smiled at that.
"There is also a recording.
Audio.
Labeled RV-CALL-MARCH.
It is a phone call between Renn and a man named Stokes, who works for him.
They discuss the arrangement.
They use careful language, but not careful enough." She paused.
"I want you to take this to someone outside Renn's reach.
Not local law enforcement — he has relationships there.
Federal.
Or a journalist with a clean record and nothing to lose.
Dominic will know who."
She looked at the camera for a moment without speaking.
Then she said, more quietly, "I used to think about you.
When I was young, before I understood what had happened, I used to imagine I had a sister somewhere.
I gave her a name.
I called her Hannah." Her voice didn't break, but it came close.
"I don't think that was a coincidence.
I think some part of me knew."
She reached toward the camera.
"Take care of my girls.
They already love you.
I think they've been waiting for you since the day they were born."
The video ended.
The screen went dark.
Hannah did not move for a long time.
Outside, traffic moved past on the street.
Someone honked twice in the distance.
The ordinary world continuing without any awareness of what had just happened in this car.
Dominic spoke first.
"She made this for you before she ever knew your name."
"She knew my name," Hannah said.
"She'd always known it."
He didn't answer.
Hannah looked at the file list on the screen.
RV-MED-TRANSFER.
RV-CALL-MARCH.
Fourteen months of work, organized and labeled by a woman who knew she was running out of time and used every hour she had left.
"She was braver than anyone knew," Hannah said.
"Yes."
"And Renn let her d*e knowing she might have found something."
"He calculated the risk.
He thought she hadn't found enough.
He was wrong."
Hannah closed the laptop.
"You said federal.
You said Dominic will know who." She looked at him.
"So who?"
He was already reaching for his phone.
"There's a federal prosecutor.
Her name is Adrienne Cole.
She's been building a financial crjmes case for three years and she's been stalled because she's missing the primary transaction record." He paused.
"I've spoken to her twice.
Carefully.
Off the record."
"And now we have the primary transaction record."
"And the audio."
Hannah looked at the dark laptop screen.
"Renn called you yesterday.
He knows you found me.
How long before he moves?"
Dominic's expression shifted.
"He already has."
His phone lit up.
A message from one of his men.
He read it.
His jaw tightened.
"What?" Hannah asked.
He turned the phone so she could see the screen.
May you like
The message was four words.
*They took the nanny.*
