Chapter 15 - The Voice From Four Years Ago.
Chris did not want to hear another recording from his dead wife.
He wanted Natalie alive.
He wanted one ordinary morning in their old kitchen.
He wanted to argue about coffee and school lunches and whether the roses needed trimming.
Instead, he stood in a hospital conference room while Sergeant Brooks placed a recorder on the table.
Elena sat beside him.
Evelyn stood near the wall.
Thomas remained in his room under guard.
Brooks pressed play.
Natalie's voice filled the room again.
"Chris, if you are hearing this, then my father finally told you what happened in the garage."
Chris gripped the edge of the table.
"Please listen before you decide what kind of man he is."
"Thomas made a terrible choice."
"But Grant designed the choice for him."
Elena covered her mouth.
"I found the garage footage."
"I found the message Grant sent Thomas."
"Grant told him the car was his."
"Grant told him the brake line would be repaired."
"And then Grant sent me a message from your number asking me to meet you at your office."
Chris shut his eyes.
The entire night had been arranged.
Natalie continued.
"I know this because I confronted Grant."
"He admitted more than he realized because he thought I had no evidence."
A faint sound moved in the background.
Then Grant's voice appeared on the recording.
"You are making this bigger than it is, Natalie."
Her voice answered.
"You used my father to damage a car and then sent me to drive it."
Grant laughed.
"Nothing happened."
"Not yet."
"Exactly."
Chris felt his stomach twist.
The recording had been made before the crash.
Natalie knew the danger.
She had discovered enough to confront Grant and survive that confrontation.
So why did she drive the car later?
Her voice answered the question.
"I had the car inspected after I recorded this."
"A mechanic tightened the fitting and said it was safe."
"If something happens now, it will not be because of what Thomas did."
Chris opened his eyes.
Elena stared at the recorder.
Brooks leaned forward.
Natalie continued.
"Grant thinks I am afraid of him."
"I am not."
"But there is someone else I am afraid of."
The room went still.
"Someone who knows what Grant did and is using it to control him."
"Someone who has access to family money, old records, and private investigators."
Evelyn's face tightened.
"I thought it was my mother."
Evelyn whispered, "No."
"Then I learned my mother's death records were false."
Chris looked at Evelyn.
Natalie had known.
"I found proof that Evelyn is alive."
Evelyn began crying silently.
"I do not know where she is."
"I do not believe she is directing Grant."
"The payments come through her accounts, but the authorization pattern is wrong."
"Someone is using her name."
Brooks exchanged a look with Chris.
Natalie took a breath on the recording.
"I think the person behind Grant is closer to Chris than the Vale family."
Chris felt the room become cold.
"If I am right, Grant is not protecting a Vale."
"He is protecting a Hale."
The recording ended.
No one spoke.
Chris replayed the last sentence in his mind.
A Hale.
His father had died six years earlier.
His mother, Margaret Hale, lived in Charleston and rarely visited.
His younger brother, Owen, had died as a teenager.
That left only Chris and Grant.
Unless Natalie meant someone connected to the family by marriage or business.
Brooks asked the obvious question.
"Who besides Grant had access to Hale family accounts four years ago?"
Chris thought carefully.
"My father before he died."
"Grant."
"Me."
"And our family office director."
"Name?"
Chris looked at her.
"Daniel Price."
Brooks typed it into her tablet.
"Where is he now?"
"He retired."
"When?"
Chris's answer came slowly.
"Two months after Natalie died."
Brooks looked up.
Chris felt a new dread settle over him.
Daniel had worked for the Hale family for thirty years.
He had been at Chris's wedding.
He had visited the hospital when Lily was born.
He had been one of the men who carried Chris's father to his grave.
He had hugged Chris after Natalie's funeral and told him to focus on his daughter while the adults handled the paperwork.
Chris had trusted him without question.
Police searched Daniel's financial history.
The results came quickly.
Two weeks after Natalie died, Daniel received a payment of three million dollars from an overseas trust.
The trust name was Marianne Foundation.
Marianne was Evelyn's dead sister.
Evelyn stared at the record.
"I never created that foundation."
Brooks traced the account authorization.
The digital certificate was linked to an old Hale family office computer.
That computer had been assigned to Daniel.
Chris felt the investigation turn toward home.
"Where is he?"
Brooks checked the address.
Daniel Price owned a farmhouse seventy miles away.
Officers arrived after midnight.
The house was empty.
A meal sat unfinished on the kitchen table.
The back door was open.
In the study, police found a wall covered with photographs of Hawthorne House, Natalie, Thomas, Grant, Vanessa, and Lily.
At the center was a photograph of Chris.
A red line connected him to every other person.
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Below it, Daniel had written one sentence.
HE STILL DOES NOT KNOW WHY NATALIE HAD TO DIE.
