Chapter 6 - THE ACCIDENT THAT WASN’T
Mary listened to the recording three times.
Each time, the room felt colder.
Rebecca immediately contacted federal prosecutors and the state police investigator who had handled Thomas Whitmore’s death.
Julian sealed the entire twenty-eighth floor.
Olivia surrendered her laptop, private email account, and access codes.
Ethan remained in the lobby.
He did not yet know Olivia had changed sides.
Mary watched him through the security monitor.
He sat in a leather chair with his elbows on his knees.
His father paced near the entrance.
Evelyn stood apart from both men.
They looked less like a family than three people waiting to discover which one would betray the others first.
Rebecca ended her call.
“The investigator is reopening your father’s case.”
Mary looked at the frozen image of Thomas’s damaged car on Rebecca’s screen.
The vehicle had been destroyed after the insurance investigation.
The road had no working traffic cameras.
A mechanical inspection found that the brakes failed after the collision began.
No one had examined whether they had been tampered with beforehand.
“Ethan borrowed my father’s car two days before the accident.”
Mary spoke slowly.
“He said his own vehicle was being serviced.”
Rebecca wrote it down.
“Did your father mention anything unusual?”
“He called me that night.”
“He said he had discovered a financial betrayal.”
“He wanted to meet the next morning.”
Mary had been in Boston for a conference.
Her father died before she returned.
Ethan comforted her while Charles pushed for the Blackridge partnership.
At the time, Mary believed the deal honored her father’s final negotiations.
Now she wondered whether the partnership had been the reason he died.
Julian entered the room.
“The police are here.”
Mary nodded.
“Bring Ethan and his father upstairs separately.”
Rebecca looked at her.
“You should not question them.”
“I’m not going to.”
Mary glanced at Olivia.
“I want them to believe she escaped.”
Olivia’s face tightened.
Mary continued.
“Place Ethan in the executive lounge.”
“Tell Charles his son has already made a statement.”
Rebecca understood immediately.
“You want them to turn on each other.”
“They built their plan through distrust.”
“We will let distrust destroy it.”
Ethan was taken upstairs first.
He demanded to see Mary.
He threatened the officers with lawsuits.
He insisted Olivia had manipulated him.
Twenty minutes later, Charles was placed in another room.
A detective told him Ethan had surrendered his phone.
That was not technically true.
The effect was immediate.
Charles asked for an attorney.
Then he asked whether Ethan had mentioned the mountain road.
The detective did not answer.
Charles began sweating.
In the adjoining room, Ethan was told his father had requested immunity.
He laughed at first.
Then the detective mentioned Thomas Whitmore’s brakes.
Ethan stopped laughing.
Mary watched through the one-way glass.
Ethan leaned back in his chair.
His expression changed from outrage to calculation.
May you like
Finally, he said one sentence.
“My father told me the car would only frighten him.”
