Avery’s chardonnay-clouded mind raced. She was still working angles in her mind about how to obtain footage of that homemade sex video. But she needed more than that. She needed access to the case file and the intimate details about the investigation. She thought for a moment about the channels she could peruse to obtain such details. Finally, she brought her thoughts back to the present and pointed at the answering machine.

“What does the answering machine have to do with all of it?”

Emma took a sip of wine to steady herself. “Victoria called me that day.”

“What day?”

“September eleventh. After the first plane struck the North Tower. She called to tell me she was trapped. She called to . . . to say good-bye.”

Avery slowly put down her wineglass. “Oh, Emma, that’s awful. And you kept the message all these years?”

“Yes. But not for that reason. Not because it was Victoria saying good-bye. She told me something else that day. I want you to hear it.”

Avery waited, not blinking and barely breathing. The wine buzz was simultaneously interfering with, and facilitating, her concentration. Slowly, Emma reached over to the answering machine and pressed the play button. There were a few seconds of static before a voice was heard.

“Emma!”

The voice of Victoria Ford was amazingly clear as it echoed from the twenty-year-old machine.

“If you’re there, pick up the phone!”

There was a long pause as Victoria waited for her sister to respond to her desperate plea. Avery shifted her gaze from the machine to Emma, but Emma had her eyes closed. Avery wondered how many times the woman had listened to this recording over the last twenty years. In the background of the recording, Avery heard yelling and crying and general chaos.

“Emma, I’m in the city . . . at the World Trade Center. Something’s happened. There was an explosion and people are saying a plane hit the building. I’m in the North Tower and . . . I think we’re trapped. There’s a fire on the floors below us that is preventing us from getting to the ground floor. We’re all heading up to the roof. There will be helicopters, some are saying, to rescue us. I don’t know if I believe it, but I’m following the crowd. There’s nowhere else to go. I love you! Tell Mom and Dad I love them, too. I’ll call again when I know what’s happening. Bye for now.”

Emma pressed a button to stop the recorder. She looked up to Avery, who had tears in her eyes.

“Emma, that’s . . . tragic. I’m so sorry. It must be horrible to . . . have that tape. To have that reminder.”

“There’s more,” Emma said. “Another message. And that’s what I really want you to hear.”

Emma took a deep breath and another sip of wine before starting the answering machine again.