Chapter 9 - what vanessa knew about the crash
Vanessa was questioned again that afternoon.
This time she invoked her right to remain silent.
Her attorney did all the talking.
Rachel waited at Margaret's house.
Noah slept in the room that had once belonged to Rachel as a teenager.
Margaret had placed Caleb's childhood lamp on the dresser.
A baseball lamp.
Blue shade.
It looked ridiculous beside newborn supplies.
Rachel loved it.
At 6:03 p.m., Detective Brooks called.
"Mark wants a deal."
Rachel stood.
"What kind?"
"His attorney contacted the prosecutor."
"He's talking?"
"Maybe."
"What does he want?"
"Reduced exposure on the financial charges."
Rachel laughed.
"He thinks stealing money is his problem?"
"We don't know what he'll admit."
"When?"
"Tomorrow."
The next morning, Mark Sloan sat behind a glass partition in a county interview room.
Rachel was not allowed inside.
She learned what he said afterward.
Mark admitted the affair.
Eighteen months.
He admitted helping Vanessa move company money.
He admitted entering the garage at 4:12 a.m.
He admitted taking Caleb's truck.
But he denied intending to kill him.
According to Mark, Vanessa had a plan.
Make the truck unreliable.
Scare Caleb.
Keep him distracted.
Convince him his business was failing.
Push him into selling his share of Carter Renovations.
Then Vanessa and Mark would leave with the stolen money.
The first brake tampering had been minor.
Mark claimed he had nicked the line enough to cause softness in the pedal.
He expected Caleb to notice.
Caleb did.
Then Caleb took the truck to Dennis.
That changed everything.
Vanessa called Mark after overhearing Caleb mention police.
She told Mark that if investigators inspected the truck, they would connect the damage to him.
Mark panicked.
He entered the garage.
Stole the truck.
Replaced the damaged section of brake line.
Rachel interrupted when Brooks explained this.
"Then the brakes should have been fixed."
Brooks nodded.
"According to him."
"But Caleb's brakes failed."
"Yes."
Rachel stared at her.
"So Mark says someone else damaged them after he repaired them?"
"Correct."
"Who?"
"Vanessa."
Margaret covered her mouth.
Mark claimed he returned Caleb's truck to the Carter house at approximately 5:10 a.m.
He left the keys inside the mudroom.
Vanessa was awake.
They argued.
Mark told her it was over.
He wanted out.
He said the truck was safe again.
At 5:46, Mark left.
At 6:22, Caleb arrived home in a rideshare after spending the night at a friend's house.
At 6:41, Caleb drove away.
At 7:03, he crashed.
Rachel felt sick.
Twenty-one minutes.
"What did Vanessa do in those twenty-one minutes?"
"Mark says he doesn't know."
"Do you believe him?"
"I believe parts of his statement are independently verifiable."
"What parts?"
"Toll cameras show Mark's vehicle leaving the neighborhood at 5:48."
Margaret whispered.
"So Vanessa was alone."
"Until Caleb returned."
Rachel stood.
"She cut it again."
Brooks remained careful.
"We need physical evidence."
"The truck."
"The truck has been stored since the crash, but corrosion and collision damage complicate analysis."
"Caleb's phone?"
"Destroyed badly."
"House cameras?"
"None."
"Neighbors?"
"We're checking."
Rachel paced.
"There has to be something."
Brooks looked at her.
"There may be."
Rachel stopped.
"The third phone."
"We found a deleted video."
Rachel's heartbeat jumped.
"From Vanessa's old phone?"
"Yes."
"Show me."
"We can't yet."
"Why?"
"It may contain evidence not appropriate for release."
"Of what?"
Brooks paused.
"Your brother's final morning."
Rachel sat down slowly.
"Vanessa recorded him?"
"Not intentionally, as far as we can tell."
"What does that mean?"
"The phone appears to have been left inside a kitchen cabinet with the camera application running."
Rachel frowned.
"Why?"
"Possibly because Caleb put it there while copying files."
"Caleb had her old phone."
"Yes."
"And he hid it in the wall later?"
"Likely."
"How could it record the morning he died if it was hidden?"
Brooks corrected her.
"We think Caleb hid it after the recording."
Rachel stared.
"So he came home."
"Yes."
"He found the phone recording."
"Possibly."
"And then hid it behind the nursery wall before leaving."
"That's our working theory."
"What is on the video?"
Detective Brooks looked toward Noah's room.
Then back at Rachel.
"You won't want to hear this."
"That stopped mattering eleven weeks ago."
Brooks exhaled.
"The video shows Vanessa entering the kitchen at 6:05 a.m."
"Before Caleb returned."
"Yes."
"Doing what?"
"She places something on the counter."
"What?"
"A utility knife."
Rachel froze.
Brooks continued.
"Then she leaves through the mudroom door."
Margaret began crying.
Rachel said nothing.
"Seven minutes later, she returns."
"Without the knife?"
Brooks nodded.
Rachel's voice barely worked.
"Then Caleb comes home."
"At 6:24."
"What happens?"
"They argue."
"Can you hear them?"
"Some."
"What does Vanessa say?"
Detective Brooks hesitated.
Rachel stared at her.
"Tell me."
Brooks opened her notebook.
"Caleb asks, 'What did you do?'"
Margaret sobbed.
Rachel's body went cold.
"What does she say?"
Brooks looked directly at her.
May you like
"Vanessa says, 'The same thing you were going to do to me.'"
Rachel felt the floor disappear beneath her.
