“Stop saying that.”
She nodded.
He looked away.
After a moment she said:
“I can’t undo it.”
“No.”
“I can’t ask you to forgive me.”
“No.”
“I can tell the truth.”
Taylor stared.
“That’s the minimum.”
“Yes.”
Good answer.
The next tape provided another clue.
Dated the day Megan vanished.
Gregory:
“She agreed.”
Richard:
“To what?”
Gregory:
“She’ll disappear.”
Richard:
“For money?”
Gregory laughed.
“No.”
Richard:
“Then why?”
Gregory:
“Because she thinks it’s the only way to keep the child safe.”
Taylor nearly collapsed.
Victoria covered her face.
Dana paused.
Taylor whispered:
“Megan agreed?”
Dana said:
“Listen.”
Tape continued.
Richard:
“And evidence?”
Gregory:
“She says she destroyed it.”
Richard:
“You believe her?”
Gregory:
“No.”
Richard:
“Where is she going?”
Gregory:
“Protection.”
Richard:
“Whose?”
Pause.
Gregory:
“She thinks federal.”
Richard:
“Thinks?”
Gregory:
“I gave her a contact.”
Taylor’s eyes opened.
Dana leaned forward.
Gregory:
“She’ll never reach him.”
Tape ended.
Silence.
Taylor looked toward Dana.
“What does that mean?”
“Potentially abduction.”
Victoria whispered:
“Or murder.”
Taylor closed his eyes.
Then tape eight.
Two weeks after Megan vanished.
Richard sounded furious.
Richard:
“Where is she?”
Gregory:
“Gone.”
Richard:
“That is not an answer.”
Gregory:
“It’s the only one you need.”
Richard:
“You said no bodies.”
Gregory:
“And there isn’t one.”
Richard:
“Did you kill her?”
Long silence.
Then Gregory:
“If I had, you wouldn’t be asking.”
Tape ended.
Taylor stared at the machine.
Dana said:
“That is not proof.”
He knew.
Still.
A possibility entered the room.
Alive.
Maybe.
Gregory did not say she was dead.
Maybe because he liked ambiguity.
Maybe because truth was more complicated.
Federal agents began rebuilding Gregory’s movements seven years earlier.
Phone records gone.
Vehicle logs partly retained.
Old security footage mostly deleted.
Then one detail surfaced.
The “federal contact” Gregory gave Megan was a real retired FBI agent named Charles Voss.
Voss had died two years earlier.
His widow still lived in Maryland.
Dana visited.
Taylor waited eleven hours for the call.