Chapter 24 - THE MISSING RECORDING.
Helga looked at the memory card in her palm.
"My recorder still has its card."
Lydia frowned.
"Then I don't know what this is."
Alexander took it carefully.
"Where exactly did you find it?"
"In the small inside pocket."
"When?"
"Today."
"How long had that purse been there?"
"Since Saturday."
Helga looked toward Alexander.
He understood immediately.
Unknown did not mean sinister.
The first task was not inventing meaning.
It was checking the object.
Alexander examined the card.
No label.
No note.
Nothing dramatic.
Lydia looked embarrassed.
"I almost threw it away."
"Why didn't you?"
"It looked familiar."
Helga frowned.
"Did you ever handle my recorder?"
"No."
"Did you pick anything up from the rug?"
Lydia thought.
"The bills."
"Anything near the flowerpot?"
"No."
Alexander looked at Helga.
"Could this be yours from another device?"
"Maybe."
"Camera?"
"I haven't used a camera with a memory card in years."
Lydia shifted.
"I should go."
Helga looked up.
"You don't have to."
"I feel like every time I enter this story, there's another recording."
Alexander laughed.
"So do we."
Lydia smiled.
Then became serious.
"I am sorry."
"Stop apologizing."
Helga pointed toward the hallway.
"You'll become one of us."
Lydia laughed and left.
Alexander held up the card.
"Do you want to check it?"
Helga hesitated.
"Yes."
They used an old laptop.
The card contained audio files.
Dozens.
Helga frowned.
"That's mine."
Alexander looked at her.
"How?"
"I used this card in the recorder before."
"When?"
"Months ago."
"Why wasn't it in the recorder?"
"I changed it when it filled."
Alexander relaxed slightly.
No mysterious plant.
No secret surveillance.
Just an old memory card.
"How did Lydia get it?"
Helga thought.
Then laughed.
"What?"
"My purse."
Alexander frowned.
"The recorder was in my purse before I hid it under the flowerpot."
"So?"
"The old card was in the little pocket."
"Then when the money fell—"
"I opened the purse."
A mundane answer.
The card had probably fallen onto the rug.
Lydia had picked it up with the scattered bills and dropped it into her own purse by mistake.
Alexander leaned back.
"Good."
Helga looked at him.
"You sound disappointed."
"I am exhausted by mysteries."
"Healthy."
He clicked through files.
Most were irrelevant.
Helga testing the recorder.
A grocery list.
A television in the background.
A conversation with a contractor about a leaking window.
Alexander smiled.
"You recorded the window guy?"
"I didn't trust his estimate."
"Of course."
Then they reached files from two months earlier.
Christmas.
Alexander stopped.
Helga's expression changed.
"I forgot I had that."
"What?"
"I tested the recorder at your party."
"Why?"
"New batteries."
He clicked.
Holiday music.
Voices.
Someone laughing.
Glasses.
Nothing meaningful.
Then Bianca's voice.
Faint.
Talking to someone across the room.
Alexander leaned closer.
"What did she say?"
Helga shook her head.
"Turn it up."
He did.
Bianca:
"Please move that coat before people get here."
Another voice.
Male.
Ewald.
"Whose?"
Bianca:
"Helga's."
Pause.
Ewald:
"Why?"
Bianca:
"It smells."
Ewald laughed softly.
"Then tell her."
Bianca:
"I don't want Alexander making it a thing."
Alexander stopped the recording.
Helga sat still.
Ewald had known about the coat.
Not after.
During.
He had not moved it.
He had not made the bleach joke.
But when Alexander asked whether he knew Bianca had treated Helga differently, Ewald had said no.
Another established lie.
Alexander picked up his phone.
Helga stopped him.
"No."
He looked at her.
"He lied."
"Yes."
"You heard it."
"Yes."
"I'm calling him."
"No."
"Why?"
Helga closed the laptop.
"Because it is almost ten."
"So?"
"So I am seventy-two, tired, and not spending another night watching adults discover character defects in real time."
Alexander stared.
Then laughed.
Helga didn't.
"I'm serious."
"What do you want to do?"
"Tomorrow."
"Mom."
"Tomorrow."
He looked at the closed laptop.
Ewald's lie mattered.
But Helga was right.
Evidence did not expire overnight.
He put his phone down.
Helga stood.
"You sleep here."
Alexander frowned.
"Why?"
"Because you're exhausted."
"I have a house."
"You have a guest room."
He smiled.
"I grew up here."
"Then find it."
He stood.
Before leaving the kitchen, he stopped.
"Tomorrow I'm confronting him."
Helga nodded.
"Fine."
"You're coming."
"No."
"Mom."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because Ewald lied to you."
Alexander waited.
Helga continued.
"He owes you the explanation."
"What about you?"
"He owes me an apology."
"Do you want it?"
"I want him to understand why he's giving it."
Alexander nodded.
The next morning, they met Ewald anyway.
Not because Helga changed her mind.
Because Ewald arrived at her apartment before Alexander could leave.
He stood in the doorway looking pale.
Helga crossed her arms.
"What happened?"
Ewald held out his phone.
"Bianca called me."
Alexander frowned.
"About what?"
Ewald looked at Helga.
"The Christmas recording."
Alexander stared.
"How does she know?"
Ewald swallowed.
"Because I told her."
Helga's eyes narrowed.
"Told her what?"
May you like
Ewald looked down.
"That I knew about the coat."
