Chapter 4 - THE PHONE TOBY HIDToby waited until Rose fell asleep before admitting he had hidden more than the memory card.
They sat in Jasper’s office amid the overturned drawers. Rain struck the windows while deputies searched nearby roads for Grant’s SUV.
“Dad gave me a phone,” Toby said.
Hazel stared at him.
“When?”
“The afternoon before he died.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He said not to until Grandpa came for the house.”
Toby removed a loose panel beneath the desk and pulled out an old smartphone wrapped in one of Jasper’s handkerchiefs.
The device required a six-digit code.
Rose’s birthday opened it.
A video showed Jasper sitting with Toby in the parked family car.
“Toby,” Jasper said, “you are not responsible for fixing what the adults have done. Your only job is to keep yourself and your sister safe.”
Toby looked toward the phone camera.
“What if they hurt Mom?”
“Call Sheriff Ward. Call Miles. Do not confront Frederick alone.”
Toby lowered his eyes.
He had confronted Frederick within minutes of arriving home.
Hazel placed a hand against the back of his head.
“You were protecting me.”
“I made it worse.”
“No. Frederick made it violent.”
The phone contained photographs of loan agreements, emails between Frederick and Grant, and a voice recording made inside Beaumont Family Holdings.
Frederick’s voice came first.
“Jasper reaches the state investigator tomorrow, and the entire company freezes.”
Grant replied, “I can delay him.”
“How?”
“Disable the car. Nothing dramatic.”
Avery spoke from farther away.
“You promised nobody would be hurt.”
Frederick answered, “Then convince your son to sign.”
The recording ended.
Hazel replayed it.
Jasper’s crash occurred the following morning on a rain-slick mountain road. The police report blamed excessive speed and mechanical failure. No criminal investigation followed.
Lena immediately contacted the state laboratory that still held Jasper’s vehicle.
The original inspection found damage to the braking system but classified it as impact-related.
Now investigators would test whether the damage occurred before the crash.
The phone’s location log showed Grant’s black SUV following Jasper for fourteen miles.
Then both signals stopped near the crash site.
Grant remained there for twenty-three minutes before driving away.
He never called emergency services.
A passing truck driver found Jasper nearly an hour later.
Hazel’s grief hardened into something colder.
“He watched Jasper die.”
Miles stood near the doorway.
“We don’t know that.”
“He stayed there.”
“We need proof of what happened during those minutes.”
Toby opened a second application.
Jasper’s smartwatch had automatically synced a short emergency recording to the phone.
The audio began with rain and metal groaning.
Jasper’s breathing sounded weak.
He attempted to call someone.
The screen showed one completed call lasting ninety-four seconds.
Recipient: Miles Whitaker.
Everyone looked toward the attorney.
Miles went pale.
“I never spoke to him.”
“The call connected,” Lena said.
“My phone did not ring.”
Jasper’s voice emerged faintly from the damaged recording.
“Miles, Grant followed me. The brakes—”
Static swallowed several seconds.
Then another male voice answered.
Not Miles.
“Where is the folder, Jasper?”
Jasper breathed heavily.
“You already know.”
“You changed the lock.”
“You’re not getting Hazel’s house.”
The unknown man laughed.
“We don’t need the house. We need what’s recorded beneath it.”
The call ended.
Hazel turned toward Miles.
“Someone answered your number while Jasper was dying.”
Miles stared at the phone.
May you like
“And Jasper recognized him.”
👉 Jasper’s final call was routed through Miles’s private line, placing the attorney’s office inside the last minutes of his life.
