“March 20. Daniel asked whether Dad had left me the lake property.”
“That was a conversation.”
“March 22. Vanessa asked whether my life insurance policies had named beneficiaries.”
Vanessa finally looked up.
“You twist everything.”
I nodded.
“That’s what I thought, too.”
Then I removed the third item from my coat.
A tiny black device sealed inside a transparent evidence pouch.
Daniel stared at it.
Vanessa stopped breathing.
Judge Mercer looked puzzled.
“What is that?”
“A voice recorder.”
Hale shot to his feet.
“Your Honor—”
Judge Mercer raised one hand.
“Sit down, Mr. Hale.”
Hale obeyed.
I looked directly at Vanessa.
“I found it beneath my desk.”
For a moment no one moved.
Then Daniel turned toward his wife.
“You said she was recording us.”
Vanessa’s head snapped toward him.
“Daniel, shut up.”
I almost smiled.
There it was.
The first crack.
Daniel stared at her.
“You said you found recording equipment in her bedroom.”
“I said shut up.”
Judge Mercer wrote something on the page before him.
I said quietly, “That recorder does not belong to me.”
Vanessa’s face had drained of color.
“It was purchased using a credit card ending in 8804.”
Daniel looked down.
His card.
“I didn’t buy that,” he whispered.
