Chapter 10 - The Third Person
Jason Hale returned to Connecticut in custody.
His statement changed the entire case.
He admitted following Sarah.
He admitted photographing her.
He admitted taking copies of her documents from her apartment.
He admitted helping Victoria redirect money.
But he denied touching Sarah’s car.
According to Jason, Victoria had been terrified that Sarah would expose everything.
The forged paternity letter.
The stolen settlement money.
Harbor Point.
Nathan’s daughter.
Victoria asked Jason to frighten Sarah into silence.
Jason followed Sarah to the parking structure near the hospital.
Sarah was meeting an investigative journalist there.
Victoria arrived unexpectedly.
An argument followed.
Jason claimed he left first.
Forty minutes later, Sarah crashed.
Nathan sat beside Grace while Michael read the statement.
“Who else knew?” Nathan asked.
Michael turned the page.
“Jason says one person.”
“Who?”
“Thomas Vale.”
Nathan frowned.
Grace had never heard the name.
Michael explained.
Thomas Vale had served as Cole Meridian’s chief risk officer under Nathan’s father.
He had retired three years ago.
He was seventy now.
Nathan remembered him well.
“Thomas handled Harbor Point.”
“Yes.”
“Sarah threatened his career.”
“And potentially criminal exposure.”
Grace asked, “Did Victoria know him?”
Michael looked at Nathan.
Nathan answered.
“She worked directly with him.”
Police searched Vale’s residence.
They found nothing.
Then they searched his lake cabin.
There, investigators discovered maintenance tools consistent with those used to damage Sarah’s brake line.
More importantly, they found a notebook.
Dates.
Names.
Payments.
Harbor Point appeared repeatedly.
So did Victoria.
The final relevant entry was written on the day Sarah died.
V says Miller meeting reporter. Handle before noon.
Grace stared at the photocopy.
“V.”
Michael nodded.
“Prosecutors believe that means Victoria.”
Nathan stood.
“Believe?”
“They need more.”
“They have emails.”
“They have circumstantial evidence.”
“They have Jason.”
“Jason is cooperating to reduce his own sentence. Defense attorneys will attack him.”
Grace felt panic rising.
“So she walks away?”
“No,” Michael said. “The fraud case alone is strong.”
“I’m talking about Sarah.”
Michael softened.
“I know.”
Then Daniel Price entered.
He carried a small evidence bag.
“What’s that?” Nathan asked.
“A key recovered from the storage unit.”
Nathan frowned.
“What does it open?”
“We didn’t know.”
Daniel placed a photograph on the table.
“It belongs to a safe deposit box.”
“Whose?”
“Sarah Miller.”
Grace stared.
“My sister didn’t have a safe deposit box.”
“Apparently she did.”
The box had been opened three times.
Once by Sarah.
Once nine days before her death.
And once the morning of her death.
Grace was listed as successor access holder.
She had never known.
The bank arranged for her to open it under investigator supervision.
Inside were photographs.
Copies of emails.
Sarah’s journal.
A digital recorder.
And a handwritten letter addressed to Grace.
Grace opened it with shaking hands.
Gracie,
If you are reading this, something probably happened before I got the chance to explain.
I know you think I should forget Nathan. Maybe you are right about that. But Lily deserves to know where she came from, and Nathan deserves to know she exists.
I learned something worse than I expected.
Victoria did not only lie to me about Nathan.
She lied to Nathan about me.
And I think she has been using his company to cover things that started before either of us understood what was happening.
I am meeting a reporter named Evelyn Shaw.
If I get scared and change my mind, remind me why I started.
Lily.
Always Lily.
Grace stopped reading.
Nathan covered his mouth.
The digital recorder contained Sarah’s meeting with Evelyn Shaw.
They listened.
Sarah’s voice filled the room.
Clear.
Alive.
Grace began crying before the first minute ended.
Sarah described Nathan.
The pregnancy.
Victoria.
Harbor Point.
Then another voice appeared near the end of the recording.
Victoria’s.
“You really don’t know when to disappear, do you?”
Nathan froze.
On the recording, Sarah said, “I’m telling him everything.”
Victoria answered, “You will destroy him.”
“No. You did that.”
“You think he’s going to choose you?”
“This isn’t about me.”
“It has always been about you.”
“No, Victoria. It’s about Lily.”
A chair scraped.
Sarah spoke again.
“If anything happens to me, Grace has copies.”
Victoria laughed.
“You think your sister can fight people like us?”
Sarah’s final response was quiet.
“I think my sister is stronger than you’ll ever understand.”
The recording ended.
Grace sobbed.
Nathan sat completely still.
Then Michael rewound the final seconds.
“There.”
A man’s voice could be heard faintly in the background.
Victoria said one word.
“Thomas.”
For the first time, prosecutors had evidence placing Victoria and Thomas Vale together with Sarah shortly before the crash.
But the next discovery was worse.
May you like
Evelyn Shaw, the reporter Sarah had met, had vanished from journalism four years earlier.
Nobody had seen her since.
