Chapter 5 - Evelyn's Last Warning)
The next morning Vanessa announced that she wanted to move the wedding forward.
There had been no formal wedding date.
Now she wanted one within six weeks.
Grant agreed.
Claire nearly dropped the coffee pot.
Vanessa smiled at her from across the breakfast table.
"Surprised?"
Claire forced her expression blank.
"No."
"You look surprised."
Grant did not look at Claire.
"We've waited long enough."
Vanessa reached across the table and took his hand.
Claire watched him let her.
Only the tension in Grant's fingers revealed the truth.
He was baiting her.
And Vanessa had no idea.
That afternoon Grant's investigator arrived pretending to be an insurance consultant.
His name was David Rowan.
He was fifty two, quiet, and so ordinary looking that Claire might never have remembered his face if she passed him on the street.
That was probably intentional.
Claire brought coffee into the study.
David glanced at her.
"Miss Dawson."
Claire paused.
"You know who I am."
"I know everyone currently living on the property."
Vanessa would have hated that answer.
Claire liked him immediately.
David waited until the door was closed.
"We recovered partial access logs from the camera system."
Grant leaned forward.
"And?"
"The shutdowns were manual."
Claire felt vindicated and frightened at the same time.
"From where?"
"A local administrator account."
"Whose?"
David looked at Grant.
"Julian Cross."
Grant's face hardened.
Claire exhaled.
"So Vanessa and Julian are working together."
"Likely," David said. "But the evidence is circumstantial."
Claire frowned.
"What more do you need?"
"For theft, enough to show unauthorized access. For conspiracy involving a child, much more."
Grant stared out the window toward the pool.
"What about Evelyn?"
David was silent.
Claire looked between them.
"What about her?"
Grant answered.
"David reopened questions about the crash."
Claire felt cold.
Evelyn had died when her car left a wet road and struck a tree.
Everyone had called it an accident.
David placed a folder on the desk.
"The police report said brake failure caused by impact."
Grant opened the folder.
David continued.
"A mechanic who inspected the car privately before it was destroyed disagreed."
Grant looked up.
"What did he find?"
"Damage to the hydraulic line."
Claire stopped breathing.
"Cut?"
"We don't know."
"Who had access to the car?"
David looked at Grant.
"House staff. Garage staff. Family. Vanessa. Julian."
Grant closed his eyes.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Claire understood what this information was doing to him.
If Vanessa had been involved in Evelyn's death, then Grant had invited the person who killed his wife into his son's home.
Claire said quietly, "You couldn't have known."
Grant looked at her.
"I should have."
David interrupted before guilt could swallow the room.
"There is something else."
He removed a small digital recorder.
"This was found in a box of Evelyn's personal effects at the family attorney's office."
Grant stared at it.
"What is it?"
"A voice memo device."
"Why didn't I receive it?"
"It had been placed inside an envelope marked for Noah."
Claire's heart began pounding.
David pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then Evelyn's voice.
Grant's entire body went rigid.
"I don't know if I'm imagining this," Evelyn said.
Her voice sounded tired.
"But if I am not, Grant needs to look at Vanessa's accounts."
Grant covered his mouth.
The recording continued.
"I saw her with Julian outside the cottage. They were arguing about money. Julian said the phrase before the boy turns one. I don't know what he meant."
Claire looked at Grant.
Noah's first birthday was less than six weeks away.
The same amount of time Vanessa wanted before the wedding.
Evelyn's voice returned.
"If anything happens to me, do not assume it was random."
The recording ended.
No one moved.
Finally Claire whispered, "She knew."
Grant's eyes remained on the recorder.
"Not enough."
"Enough to be afraid."
David nodded.
"There's another problem."
Grant looked at him.
"What?"
"Yesterday, Julian withdrew two million dollars from an account in the Cayman Islands."
Grant's jaw tightened.
"His account?"
"No."
David pushed a document forward.
"The account is registered to a company controlled by Vanessa Hart."
Claire stared.
Grant stood.
"Where is Julian now?"
"We don't know."
Grant took out his phone.
At that exact moment, a crash sounded upstairs.
Claire ran first.
She reached the nursery and found Noah sitting safely inside the crib.
But the window was open.
The curtain moved in the wind.
On the floor lay the portable recorder Grant had given Claire.
Claire instinctively touched her apron.
The pocket was empty.
Someone had taken it.
Grant entered behind her.
Claire looked toward the open window.
A figure moved across the garden below.
David shouted from the hallway.
"Someone's leaving through the east gate."
Grant ran downstairs.
Claire lifted Noah.
Then she noticed a white envelope inside the crib.
Her name was written on it.
She opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed Claire standing beside Noah's stroller.
May you like
On the back were seven words.
The next accident will be your fault.
