Page 85 of The Beach Hut on Plum Island
“And you say Estelle’s not a stalker,” Finn said.
“Well, let’s find out the truth,” Harriet said as Finn typed in the passcode.
“There’s hardly anything of this device,” Finn noted.
“There. A folder that’s labeled family photos,” Harriet pointed out. “Let’s see what’s in there.”
“Another two folders,” Finn said, frowning. “Family and Friends.”
“Let’s click on family,” Harriet suggested. “If I was going to hide anything, I’d do it under that folder.”
“Okay.” Finn nodded and clicked on the folder.
After navigating through a maze of subfolders, they finally found what they were looking for. There were loads of videos, voice conversation recordings, messages, and emails. When they clicked on the first one, which was a voice recording marked FS with a date, they couldn’t get into it.
“It’s password protected,” Finn told her.
“Try the password we used to unlock the phone with,” Harriet suggested.
Finn tried that, but it didn’t work.
“Try the password and the date of the file,” Harriet suggested.
Finn tried it, and it worked.
Finn looked at Harriet, impressed. “How on earth did you figure that out?”
“Look how Estelle has labeled each file,” Harriet pointed out. “After the FS, at the end of each file, there is a date.”
“Estelle obviously knows you’d figure that out,” Finn said.
“Yes, because that’s how she’d lock her secret coded diaries,” Harriet said with a grin. “And before you say anything, I was investigating a case in which I was sure Estelle was the culprit.”
“I’m not even going to ask, except for how old were you?” Finn raised his eyebrows.
“About fifteen, I think,” Harriet told him.
“Okay!” Finn nodded.
They listened to the voice recording, and Finn’s heart slammed against his rib cage when he heard his late wife’s voice. She was speaking to Estelle and threatening Estelle that if she told Finn anything about what she’d seen, Estelle would be sorry for what she’d done.
Something about those words struck a chord, and he remembered the text message Harriet had gotten the previous night;you’ll be sorry for what you’ve done.But he knew it couldn’t have been Trudy as she’d been dead for seven years. It wouldn’t have been her late husband because he’d been dead for seven years as well. There was no one else connected to Trudy alive that could’ve sent that message.
A thought nagged at him as he wasn’t quite ready to rule Estelle out of being the one to have sent the messages. She’d managed to hide the phone they had from the security detail. What was to say Estelle didn’t have another burnerphone somewhere. She was also dating the head of the king’s security team, so how well did they search Estelle’s room and possessions?
Trudy’s mother also liked to use that phrase, but both she and her husband had passed away a few years before Trudy’s accident. Estelle and Trudy had been friends, so it still all pointed to Estelle. Finn thought better than to voice his suspicions as Harriet was adamant that Estelle wasn’t involved. He watched her listen intently to the voice recordings as they went through them. Harriet had such a gentle heart, and even though she wasn’t trusting, she still gave people the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.
“Did you hear that?” Harriet asked, her eyes wide.
“Sorry,” Finn suddenly realized he’d been staring at Harriet with his mind full of thoughts of her that he hadn’t heard the recording at all. “Can we play it again so I know if we’re on the same page?”Nice save, Finn.
“Of course.” Harriet nodded and played the recording over, making Finn’s heart pause a beat.
Finn will bring me my documents at the border. We’ll stage a fight, and then you can throw the bags he’ll think are my clothing into his trunk.Trudy was talking to her.That way, he’ll be the one going over the border with them.
Trudy, you can’t do that to Finn.Estelle’s voice came through the recording.Haven’t you done enough to what was once your family? Speaking of family, what do you think is going to happen to your children if Finn goes to jail?
They are not my kids,Trudy sneered.Those little monsters did nothing but ruin my figure and be ungrateful.
