She pressed play. Static hissed softly. Then Evan's voice filled the room.
It was younger than Cole remembered. Nervous, too, with breaths breaking between words. Evan described the warehouse, the threats, Mara's pregnancy, and his terror as the men visiting his home began talking about his unborn child as though the baby were another item on a list. He said he wanted to report everything and feared that he would get his family killed by trying. He described Cain offering a way out and then setting conditions that grew harsher whenever Evan questioned them. He said he did not trust the arrangement, but he trusted it more than the people who had threatened his family directly.
Mara sat down very slowly. She covered her mouth when Evan said her name. It was not merely recognition of a familiar voice. It was the shock of hearing the man she had loved speak from inside the years she had spent without him. She listened while tears moved silently down her cheeks. Nobody attempted to comfort her out of the feeling.
On the recording, Evan's voice cracked while describing Eli's crib. He said the boy had gripped his finger with such determination that he had laughed aloud. He said he had spent the last evening before leaving sitting in a chair beside the crib, memorizing a face he believed he might never see again. The account ended with a plea for his wife and son to be protected, and an admission that he did not know whether his decision would accomplish that.
Darla stopped the recording. Mara sat with her hands folded, looking at the blank wall. After a long time she spoke.
"He was there that night," she whispered. "I remember waking and seeing him beside the crib. I asked if something was wrong, and he said he couldn't sleep. I told him to come back to bed. He told me he'd be there in a minute. I fell asleep before he came."
Cole looked toward the kitchen. Eli was laughing softly at something Marcus had said about an old engine refusing to start. For the first time all evening, the sound did not make him feel entirely sad. It sounded like a child in a warm house, and that was something.
"Where is Evan now?" Cole asked.
"A property about ninety miles north, under the care of someone Voss trusts. He's been there six weeks. Before that he moved often. He knows I'm trying to bring this information to a federal investigator. He also knows Mara has begun asking questions."
"Does he know she's here?"
Darla looked down at her phone. "He knows there's a chance. I didn't tell him until I was certain he could come without leading somebody here."