She reached for my arm, but Gabriel stepped between us.

“Do not touch her,” Gabriel said.

His voice was quiet, but it carried a promise of violence that made Vanessa step back.

“I need that money to hire my own representation,” Vanessa said, her voice shaking. “If I go to jail, Richard wins anyway.”

“Richard is going to prison for murder,” I said. “And you are going to answer for what you did.”

“I didn’t kill her!” Vanessa sobbed.

“But you covered it up,” I said. “That makes you an accessory.”

Gabriel looked at his laptop screen, studying the metadata of the files.

“These files are copies,” Gabriel said, looking up. “The original recording was made on a digital dictaphone.”

He looked at Vanessa.

“Where is the physical device?” Gabriel asked.

“Dad has it,” Vanessa said. “Or he thinks he destroyed it. I copied it to his cloud drive before he could delete it.”

“A defense attorney could argue these files were manipulated,” Gabriel said to me. “We need more than just a digital copy to make this stick in a murder trial.”