Chapter 11 - The Second Phone.
Ava enlarged the location icon until the dot filled the center of the Price mansion floor plan.
It was not Nolan's abandoned phone transmitting.
The signal came from a second device registered to the same private account.
Elena looked toward Celeste.
Celeste was still seated beneath police supervision, but her eyes had fixed on Ava's screen.
James followed the look.
"Search her."
The officer beside Celeste asked her to stand.
She refused.
"I have rights."
"You also have a warrantable problem developing very quickly."
Celeste finally stood and placed her purse on the table.
The officer removed a phone, lipstick, keys, and a slim remote from inside.
The location dot did not move.
Ava looked around the foyer.
"It is somewhere else."
The old security guard frowned.
"There is a guest network repeater beneath the staircase."
They followed the signal toward a small coatroom behind the grand hall.
Inside, beneath a stack of wrapped birthday gifts, James found a cheap black phone vibrating silently.
Ava stared at it.
The message to her had been sent through a scheduled relay.
The threatening photographs of James's house were timestamped three days earlier.
Nolan had prepared the fear in advance.
James looked at his daughter.
"He wanted you to believe he could reach anywhere."
Ava felt something loosen inside her.
"He always did that."
Elena unlocked the second phone using a code from the archive records.
The message application contained dozens of scheduled texts to Ava.
Some were apologies.
Some were threats.
Some were photographs designed to imply she was being followed.
One message had been scheduled for the morning after their wedding.
YOU ARE MRS. PRICE NOW.
NO MORE RUNNING TO DADDY.
Ava looked away.
James did not.
He photographed everything.
Elena scrolled farther and found a hidden folder labeled BIRTHDAY.
Inside were instructions written by Victor to Nolan.
KEEP HER EMOTIONAL.
GET THE MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT SIGNED BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
IF SHE REFUSES, CELESTE WILL HANDLE THE WITNESSES.
Ava read the final line twice.
"What does handle the witnesses mean?"
Celeste laughed from the foyer.
"It means nobody was going to remember your little argument correctly."
One of the guests turned toward her.
"You expected us to lie?"
Celeste shrugged.
"Most of you already have."
The police commander took possession of the second phone.
"This is going to cybercrime."
Elena nodded.
"Make a forensic copy first."
The commander gave her a look.
"We know how evidence works."
For the first time that night, Elena smiled genuinely.
"Good. I have been waiting fourteen years to hear someone say that."
A radio transmission interrupted them.
Officers at the airfield had found the caretaker's house empty.
Nolan remained missing.
Victor, however, had asked to speak with Ava.
James immediately said no.
Ava surprised him.
"I want to hear what he says."
James studied her.
"You don't owe him that."
"I know."
She looked toward the ruined cake.
"That is why I can choose it."
The commander arranged a recorded video call from the patrol vehicle holding Victor.
His face appeared on a tablet minutes later.
Victor Price looked older than he had an hour earlier.
His first words were not an apology.
"Ava, if Nolan reaches you, do not believe anything he says."
Ava stared at him.
"Why?"
May you like
Victor's eyes shifted away from the camera.
"Because Nolan was never supposed to know who really ordered your mother's disappearance."
