Chapter 5 - Vanessa’s Story
Vanessa called me that evening.
Her number appeared as unknown, but I answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere your mother can’t reach me.”
“Your mother is alive.”
Silence.
“You found the photograph,” she said.
“I found more than that.”
“Did you find your birth certificate?”
Her knowledge chilled me.
“You knew?”
“I knew before I married you.”
The words should have shocked me.
Instead, they confirmed what my mother had said.
“Why did you marry me?”
“Because I believed you were the only way to reach the truth.”
“For eleven years?”
“I didn’t expect to love you.”
“Do not say that.”
“It’s true.”
“You drugged my mother.”
“No.”
“I saw you pouring water over her.”
“Because she was unconscious and turning blue.”
“The doctors found sedatives in her blood.”
“I didn’t give them to her.”
“Then who did?”
“Ask your mother.”
“She says you tried to kill her.”
“Did she say those exact words?”
I thought back.
My mother had said Vanessa knew what my father had done.
She had never directly said Vanessa poisoned her.
“Where is the recorder?” I asked.
“I have it.”
“Give it to the police.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because the recording doesn’t just implicate me.”
“What does it contain?”
“Your mother confessing.”
“To what?”
Vanessa exhaled shakily.
“My father’s death.”
I closed my eyes.
“You’re Thomas Reed’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Then what does that make us?”
“Nothing by blood. You are not my father’s biological son.”
“The birth certificate says I am.”
“It was altered.”
“How do you know?”
“Because my father could not have children.”
I gripped the phone.
“Vanessa, where are you?”
“Daniel, listen carefully. There are people inside your house who have worked for Elena for years.”
“Your mother?”
“Elena Cole is not my mother.”
“Then who is she?”
“My mother’s sister.”
The pieces rearranged themselves again.
Vanessa continued.
“My mother was Anne Reed. Elena was her younger sister. After my parents died, Elena took me away. She raised me to believe Richard Hale murdered my father and stole Project Sable.”
“What was Project Sable?”
“A medical program. At least, that was what they called it.”
“Who are they?”
“Hale Meridian.”
“What did the program do?”
“I don’t know everything. Elena never told me. She trained me to collect information, gain your trust, and locate three pieces of evidence.”
“The letter mentioned three parts.”
“Your mother has the first. Richard hid the second. Elena believed I was the third.”
“The child.”
“Yes.”
“But you were a child when Thomas died.”
“So were you.”
The line crackled.
I heard movement near her.
“Vanessa?”
“I have to go.”
“Wait. Did you try to kill my mother?”
“No.”
“Did you replace her medicine?”
“No.”
“Can you prove it?”
“The recorder can.”
“Then bring it to Detective Bennett.”
“I don’t trust her.”
“Why?”
“Because her father was the police officer who closed the investigation into the accident.”
The call ended.
I immediately contacted Bennett.
She listened without interrupting.
When I told her what Vanessa had said about her father, the detective’s face remained calm.
“My father was a police captain,” she said. “He signed the final report.”
“You didn’t mention that.”
“It wasn’t relevant until now.”
“Was the investigation corrupt?”
“My father died believing the accident report was false.”
“Why?”
“Because one week before his death, he received a package containing photographs, financial records, and a note from Margaret Hale.”
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“What did the note say?”
The detective’s gaze moved toward the dark window.
“It said Richard Hale had taken the wrong child.”
Before I could respond, an alarm sounded from the front of the house.
One of the officers shouted.
We ran into the hall.
May you like
Smoke poured from beneath the door of my father’s study.
Someone had set it on fire.
