Chapter 6 - Forty-Seven Minutes
The toxicologist was careful.
“The level was significant.”
“Fatal?” David asked.
“Not necessarily by itself.”
“Did it kill her?”
“We cannot say that from concentration alone.”
Anna had suffered from a cardiac rhythm disorder.
She had also been taking blood-pressure medication.
The sedative could have worsened dizziness, suppressed her ability to respond appropriately, and contributed to the physiological stress preceding her collapse.
But medicine rarely offered the clean certainty television promised.
The final review concluded:
Temazepam likely contributed to impairment and may have materially contributed to the circumstances leading to Anna’s cardiac arrest.
May have.
Likely.
Lily hated those words.
Detective Brooks did not.
“They matter.”
“They don’t say Vivian killed her.”
“No.”
“But she gave it to her.”
“We still need to establish that.”
Pharmacy records proved Vivian possessed temazepam.
Anna’s recording suggested Vivian gave her something.
The photograph suggested the drug appeared in Anna’s medication organizer after Vivian handled it.
Strong evidence.
Still not a complete chain.
Then Owen Mercer, the mansion’s security technician, found something.
The home system retained archived door and motion logs for two years.
Not video from private bedrooms.
But time stamps.
On the night Anna collapsed, Vivian entered Anna’s upstairs sitting room at 8:11 p.m.
She remained until 8:26.
Anna’s wearable emergency device registered a sharp heart-rate change at 8:43.
The upstairs hallway sensor detected Vivian passing at 8:47.
She went downstairs.
She entered Anna’s office at 8:49.
She remained there eighteen minutes.
At 9:07, Vivian returned upstairs.
At 9:11, she called David.
At 9:14, she called emergency services.
Lily stared at the timeline.
“Mom was sick and Vivian went to her office?”
Detective Brooks nodded.
“What was she doing?”
“We don’t know.”
David looked pale.
“When Vivian called me, she said she had just found Anna collapsed.”
Brooks tapped the logs.
“That does not appear consistent with the movement data.”
“She lied.”
“About when she found her, possibly.”
“Why wait?”
“That’s what we need to establish.”
Rachel’s voice shook.
“Eighteen minutes.”
Brooks corrected her.
“We do not yet know Anna was unconscious for all eighteen.”
Again, precision.
Again, necessary.
The memory-card recordings offered the next clue.
File fifteen began at 8:02 that same night.
Anna’s voice.
“I’m recording because Vivian brought me tea after I told her not to touch my medications.”
Lily stopped breathing.
A cup touched wood.
Vivian’s voice:
“You need sleep.”
“I need you out of my company.”
“Tomorrow.”
“No. Tonight.”
“You can barely stand.”
“Because you keep giving me things.”
A pause.
Then Vivian:
“Drink the tea, Anna.”
“No.”
The audio became muffled.
Several minutes passed.
Then Anna spoke again, weaker.
“What was in it?”
“Nothing.”
“I feel strange.”
“You’re exhausted.”
“What did you give me?”
The line from the first recording.
They had finally reached its context.
Vivian answered:
“Just enough to get you through tonight.”
“Through what?”
“Through not destroying everything.”
Anna’s breathing quickened.
“Mina is coming tomorrow.”
“I know.”
“You took my money.”
“You don’t understand what I did for this company.”
“You stole.”
“I kept it running when you stopped being capable of running anything.”
Lily looked at Mina.
Mina whispered, “The company was profitable.”
The recording continued.
Anna said:
“Get David.”
“He’s in Chicago.”
“Call him.”
“He doesn’t need another crisis.”
“Vivian.”
Then a sound.
A glass hitting carpet.
Anna gasped.
“Why can’t I stand?”
Vivian’s voice changed.
For the first time, she sounded frightened.
“Anna?”
The recording became chaotic.
Footsteps.
Anna breathing.
Then Vivian:
“Sit down.”
“Call David.”
“I will.”
“Now.”
A door closed.
The recorder continued capturing the empty room.
For nearly twenty minutes.
Lily understood before anyone explained.
Vivian had left.
While Anna was becoming seriously ill.
At 8:47.
Exactly when the motion sensor showed her entering the hallway.
Then faintly, at 9:08, the door reopened.
Vivian’s voice returned.
“Oh God.”
The recording ended.
David stood so abruptly his chair fell backward.
“She left her.”
Detective Brooks did not contradict him.
“She appears to have left the room.”
“To do what?”
Brooks looked toward the security timeline.
Anna’s office.
Eighteen minutes.
Lily whispered:
“The records.”
Everyone turned.
Vivian had not left Anna to call for help.
She had gone directly to the office containing the Meridian evidence.
May you like
And by the time she came back, Anna could no longer tell anyone what happened.
---
