Chapter 13 - The Phone Inside the Wall
Police searched the apartment again.
Walls.
Vents.
Furniture.
Electrical boxes.
Nothing.
Then Olivia solved it.
Again.
When Vargas gently asked whether Grandma had another phone, Olivia nodded.
“Where?”
“She talked to the wall.”
Everyone assumed childish phrasing.
Jessica did not.
“What wall?”
“The bathroom wall.”
Carmen’s guest bathroom contained a removable marble access panel behind the vanity.
Inside sat a black smartphone sealed in plastic.
The device had no conventional cellular service.
It used encrypted applications exclusively over Wi-Fi.
Dozens of conversations had been deleted.
Some recovered.
One thread belonged to J.
It contained years of messages.
Zayden read selected portions under supervision.
R is becoming unpredictable.
Keep Raymond contained.
Do not let Z know Forty-Seven exists.
Diane still has copy.
Rachel found Denver archive.
Then years later:
Raymond moved asset.
Find child trigger.
And finally, after Carmen moved into Zayden’s apartment:
Jessica does not know.
Carmen replied:
I am no longer certain.
J:
Then create certainty.
Months of psychological pressure followed.
Make husband doubt her.
Build medical narrative.
Create financial motive.
Prepare custody route.
Zayden had to stop reading.
Jessica did not.
Her hands shook, but she continued.
She wanted to see every sentence that had shaped the worst year of her life.
There were instructions about food.
Sleep.
Isolation.
Provocation.
Not explicit orders to burn Olivia.
That cruelty appeared to have been Carmen’s own escalation.
One message from J warned:
Do not harm child. Child must remain credible.
Jessica laughed when she read it.
A terrible, broken laugh.
“Even the criminal told her not to hurt Olivia.”
Zayden looked away.
Then investigators recovered the message Carmen described.
Sent eleven minutes before Zayden’s arrival.
Z returning early. Flight landed.
Carmen:
Why?
J:
Unknown. Accelerate dinner incident.
Carmen:
Too many witnesses.
J:
That is purpose.
Someone had access to Zayden’s travel data.
Maybe corporate itinerary.
Maybe airline information.
Maybe calendar.
The security breach came from inside Ferris Development.
An internal review identified four employees with access.
Three were cleared quickly.
The fourth disappeared.
Peter Lorne.
Zayden’s executive operations manager.
Worked beside him for six years.
Booked flights.
Managed calendars.
Handled confidential files.
Peter’s apartment was empty.
His company laptop had been wiped.
His last badge use occurred the morning Zayden flew to Chicago.
Jessica stared at Peter’s photograph.
“He came to our house.”
“When?”
“Last month.”
“Why?”
“He said you forgot a contract.”
Zayden had no memory of sending him.
“What did he do?”
“Your mother let him into the study.”
Another connection.
Another person inside their home.
Investigators searched Peter’s financial history.
He received monthly payments from a consulting company linked to Howard Bell Morrison.
The dinner guest.
Police arrested Howard that afternoon for financial crimes related to Olivia’s stolen education funds.
His reaction surprised everyone.
He immediately requested protection.
“I’ll cooperate.”
Against Carmen?
“No.”
Against J.
Howard admitted his mother, Catherine Morrison, had helped manage New Horizons records.
Before dying, she gave him access to old accounts.
J contacted Howard years later.
He became a courier.
“What is J’s real name?” investigators asked.
Howard shook his head.
“He changes identities.”
“Have you met him?”
“Twice.”
“Description?”
Howard gave one.
Male.
Late sixties or seventies.
Tall.
Gray-blue eyes.
Old injury in left hand.
Zayden felt nothing until Howard added:
“He wears a gold signet ring with a broken compass.”
Zayden remembered a ring.
Not from Carmen.
Not Raymond.
His childhood.
A man at birthday parties.
Thanksgiving.
Business dinners.
Someone Raymond called Uncle even though they were not related.
“Sebastian.”
Jessica looked at him.
“Who?”
“Sebastian Ward.”
The name returned from a part of his memory he had not opened in decades.
Sebastian had been Raymond’s mentor.
A real estate financier.
He disappeared from family life when Zayden was around twelve.
Zayden believed he had moved overseas.
Federal records showed Sebastian Ward died nineteen years earlier.
Car accident in Nevada.
No body recovered.
Vehicle burned.
Another death without a body.
Vargas looked at Zayden.
“How many dead men are there in your family?”
“Apparently not enough.”
They searched old photographs.
There he was.
Sebastian Ward.
Gold signet ring.
Broken compass.
Standing beside Carmen and Raymond at a charity event.
And beside him stood Catherine Morrison.
May you like
On the back of the photograph, Raymond had written one sentence.
The man who taught Carmen everything.
