Chapter 2 - Forty-Seven Missing Seconds
Vanessa recovered quickly.
“That account hasn’t been mine for months.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
“Your name is on it.”
“Because I helped coordinate the yacht renovation.”
Marcus Bell stepped forward.
“She did have temporary administrator access last spring.”
Elena looked sharply at him.
“Temporary?”
Marcus nodded.
“It should have been disabled.”
“Should have?”
Daniel’s voice had changed.
The fear was still there.
But now it had direction.
Marcus avoided his eyes.
“I’ll investigate.”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“This is ridiculous. We should be discussing the woman who nearly killed Noah, not an old login.”
Elena stepped toward her.
“I jumped into freezing water.”
“After you pushed him.”
“Enough,” Daniel snapped.
Both women fell silent.
Captain Harrow enlarged the access log.
“The login began eighteen seconds before the camera cut out.”
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
“Where was your phone?”
“In my handbag.”
“Where?”
“In the salon.”
“Who had access to it?”
Vanessa laughed without humor.
“Half the yacht, apparently, if you’re determined to accuse me.”
“I asked a question.”
“And I answered.”
Daniel looked toward Marcus.
“Preserve everything. Every server log, every device connection, every camera.”
Marcus nodded.
“Of course.”
“No deletions.”
“Understood.”
Elena watched Marcus.
Something about his answer bothered her.
Too fast.
Too smooth.
An hour later, Aurora docked in Newport.
Police met them at the marina.
Detective Lena Brooks separated everyone.
Noah was taken to a hospital for observation.
Daniel went with him.
Vanessa insisted on accompanying Daniel.
Elena remained at the marina in borrowed clothes while Detective Brooks questioned her.
“You’ve been employed by Mr. Mercer how long?”
“Five years.”
“As a nanny?”
“Originally as Mrs. Mercer’s personal assistant. After Claire became pregnant, I helped more at home.”
“And after Mrs. Mercer died?”
“I stayed for Noah.”
Claire Mercer had died from a pulmonary embolism four hours after delivering Noah.
Six months later, Elena still sometimes expected to hear her calling from the upstairs study.
Brooks studied her.
“Did you resent Vanessa Vale?”
Elena gave a tired laugh.
“Is that what she told you?”
“I’m asking.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Claire didn’t trust her.”
The detective paused.
“Why?”
Elena looked at the mirrored interview-room window.
“Claire believed Vanessa was manipulating Daniel.”
“Romantically?”
Elena hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Were Daniel Mercer and Vanessa involved before Claire died?”
“I don’t know exactly when it became physical.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“I believe the emotional affair began before Claire died.”
Brooks wrote something down.
“Did Claire know?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She found messages.”
“And you knew?”
“Yes.”
“Did Daniel know that you knew?”
“No.”
That answer would cost her.
She knew it as soon as she said it.
Brooks leaned back.
“Why stay in his house?”
“Because Claire asked me to.”
“When?”
“Three days before Noah was born.”
“What exactly did she say?”
Elena remembered Claire sitting beside the nursery window, one hand over her enormous stomach.
If I’m not here, promise me you won’t leave him alone with people who only see the Mercer name.
At the time, Elena had scolded her.
“You’re going to be fine.”
Claire had smiled.
That sad smile haunted Elena now.
“She asked me to protect Noah.”
“From Vanessa?”
“She didn’t name anyone.”
Brooks closed her notebook.
“You understand how this looks.”
Elena’s jaw tightened.
“I understand that I nearly died saving a child and then got slapped for it.”
Brooks’s expression softened.
“Did anyone else see the stroller go over?”
“I don’t know.”
“A deckhand named Owen Price says he was near the aft service station.”
Elena straightened.
“He was.”
“He says his back was turned.”
“Convenient.”
Brooks studied her.
“You think he’s lying?”
“I think someone deleted forty-seven seconds of video.”
That night Elena was released without charge, pending further investigation.
Her employment badge had been deactivated.
The Mercer estate manager told her she could retrieve personal belongings only with supervision.
Daniel did not call.
At 2:13 a.m., Elena sat alone in a cheap hotel room with an ice pack against her cheek.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She almost ignored it.
Instead, she answered.
Silence.
“Hello?”
A man whispered, “Don’t say my name.”
Elena sat up.
“Owen?”
Another pause.
“I saw her.”
Elena stopped breathing.
“Vanessa?”
“I saw her push the stroller.”
“Then tell the police.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because she knows about my brother.”
“What about him?”
“I can’t explain on the phone.”
“Owen—”
“Meet me tomorrow. Ten in the morning. Trinity Pier.”
The line went dead.
Elena stared at the screen.
Then another message appeared.
No sender information.
Just one photograph.
It showed the rear deck seconds before Noah went into the ocean.
Vanessa stood behind the stroller.
Her hands were already reaching toward the handle.
May you like
Below the image were six words.
THE CAMERA WASN’T THE ONLY WITNESS.
