Chapter 10 - The Woman Behind the Car)
Vanessa had watched Emily die.
The evidence came from an old toll camera.
Police had never connected the vehicle because it was registered to a corporate rental company.
Sarah Bennett found the original rental agreement.
The driver was Vanessa Cole.
Nathan stared at the photograph for a long time.
Vanessa looked younger.
Her hair was shorter.
But it was her.
The camera captured Vanessa's sedan entering the mountain road six minutes after Emily.
Another camera captured it leaving nineteen minutes later.
Emily's crash occurred between those times.
Leonard began negotiating with prosecutors.
He wanted protection.
Nathan hated every word of the agreement.
But Sarah explained the reality.
"If Leonard talks, we get Vanessa and Adrian."
Nathan looked toward the interrogation room through the glass.
"And Leonard gets less prison."
"Possibly."
"He helped kill Emily."
"He claims he ordered intimidation, not murder."
Nathan's jaw tightened.
Sarah lowered her voice.
"The question is whether you want satisfaction today or the entire truth."
Nathan looked at Olivia sleeping in Grace's arms across the hallway.
"The truth."
Leonard provided phone records.
Financial records.
Encrypted messages.
One message from Vanessa to Adrian was sent forty minutes before Emily crashed.
She knows too much. No more warnings.
Another was sent afterward.
It is done.
Nathan left the room before he broke something.
Later that evening, Olivia woke in the car.
"Are you mad?"
Nathan looked at her through the mirror.
"Very."
"At me?"
He pulled over immediately.
He turned around.
"Never at you."
She looked uncertain.
Nathan climbed into the back seat beside her.
"Why would you think that?"
"Vanessa said you would be mad if I ruined wedding."
Nathan felt another piece of himself break.
"She told you that?"
Olivia nodded.
"She said you wanted a new family."
Nathan hugged her.
"There is no family I want more than you."
Olivia pressed her face into his chest.
"I didn't mean to ruin it."
"You saved me."
She looked up.
Nathan wiped her cheeks.
"You saved both of us."
The police search for Vanessa expanded across three states.
Adrian remained in custody after the mechanic identified him from photographs.
He denied everything.
Then investigators found his old phone backup.
It contained photographs taken at Emily's crash site.
One showed the broken guardrail.
Another showed Emily's vehicle below the slope.
The timestamp was twelve minutes before emergency services received the first call.
Adrian had been there.
But the final photograph was more disturbing.
It showed Vanessa standing beside the damaged guardrail.
Looking down.
She had not called for help.
Neither had Adrian.
They waited.
Emily might have still been alive.
Nathan could barely continue reading the report.
A detective named Elena Ross sat across from him.
"We believe Mrs. Whitmore survived the initial impact."
Nathan covered his mouth.
"For how long?"
"We don't know."
Nathan stood and walked toward the window.
Detective Ross continued carefully.
"There is something else."
Nathan did not turn.
"What?"
"Emily's phone made an emergency call."
Nathan faced her.
"Nobody ever told me that."
"The call failed before connection."
"Why?"
"We don't know."
Ross placed a recovered data report on the desk.
"The phone recorded seven seconds of audio."
Nathan could not move.
"Do you want to hear it?"
He almost said no.
Then he thought of Emily alone in the wreck.
"Yes."
The audio began with static.
Emily was breathing painfully.
Then her voice.
"Nathan, if you get this, Olivia..."
The recording crackled.
Another voice sounded outside the car.
Female.
Vanessa.
Emily whispered one final sentence.
"She followed me."
The recording ended.
Nathan closed his eyes.
When he opened them, Detective Ross was watching him.
"We'll find her."
Nathan nodded.
His phone rang.
Michael.
"Nathan, you need to come home."
"What happened?"
"We found Vanessa."
Nathan's grip tightened.
"Where?"
May you like
Michael's answer made Nathan turn pale.
"Inside the mansion."
