Chapter 12 - The Day Laura Died
We opened Rebecca’s flash drive inside Andrew’s office.
Detectives were present.
So was a federal investigator who had been contacted after the trust records revealed interstate financial transfers.
The folder marked June Seventeenth contained photographs, emails, and one audio file.
Rebecca had recorded Victor seventeen minutes after Laura’s crash.
His voice was unmistakable.
“It’s done.”
Rebecca whispered.
“What’s done?”
“She won’t make the meeting.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing you need to understand.”
Rebecca sounded horrified.
“You said you were going to scare her.”
“I solved the problem.”
There was a long silence.
Then Victor spoke again.
“Delete everything she gave you.”
“What about the child?”
Victor answered immediately.
“Leave the child alone.”
I felt myself exhale.
Then he added another sentence.
“For now.”
The recording ended.
I couldn’t move.
Laura’s death had been called an accident for five years.
Now three words had shattered that conclusion.
It’s done.
The federal investigator remained careful.
“This is significant.”
“Significant?”
I stood.
“He admitted it.”
“He implied knowledge.”
“He said he solved the problem.”
“We still need evidence tying him directly to the crash.”
I hated the restraint in his voice.
But he was right.
A recording was not enough to reconstruct a five-year-old collision.
Then Rebecca’s drive revealed another file.
A payment.
Twenty-five thousand dollars transferred two days after Laura died.
Recipient.
Marcus Doyle.
The name meant nothing to me.
It meant something to one detective.
He stepped outside.
Ten minutes later he returned.
“Marcus Doyle worked as a private driver.”
“For Victor?”
“Possibly.”
“Where is he?”
The detective hesitated.
“Prison.”
“For what?”
“Armed robbery.”
Marcus had been arrested eighteen months after Laura’s death.
He was serving twelve years.
Investigators arranged an interview.
I wasn’t allowed inside.
I waited in the hallway while they spoke to him.
Two hours later, the detective emerged.
His expression told me the world had changed again.
“He remembers Victor.”
I stood.
“And Laura?”
“Yes.”
My knees nearly gave way.
“He says Victor paid him to follow her.”
“Did he cause the crash?”
“He says no.”
I stared at him.
“Do you believe him?”
“He admitted he was driving behind Laura.”
“What happened?”
According to Marcus, Victor ordered him to frighten Laura and force her to miss a meeting.
Marcus followed her onto the highway.
He accelerated.
Laura panicked.
Marcus pulled alongside her.
Then another vehicle appeared behind him.
A black SUV.
“Who was driving it?”
“He doesn’t know.”
“What happened?”
“The SUV struck Laura’s rear quarter panel.”
I stopped breathing.
“Marcus says he never agreed to that.”
“Did Victor?”
“He claims Victor told him afterward to keep quiet.”
I looked through the prison visitation window at the man sitting beyond the glass.
Then the detective handed me a photocopy.
Marcus had written down the SUV’s partial plate five years earlier because he feared Victor might eventually blame him.
The plate was incomplete.
But the vehicle description was specific.
Black Range Rover.
Custom wheels.
Broken left fog light.
I remembered Rebecca’s photographs.
The black vehicle Claire had noticed outside Emily’s school.
I called her.
“Claire, that black car you recognized.”
“Yes?”
“Was it an SUV?”
There was a pause.
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“I think a Range Rover.”
May you like
My hand went cold.
The vehicle involved in Laura’s death might have been watching Emily for years.
