Chapter 2 - The Dead Woman’s Advantage
The first person Tobias called was not the police.
Rosalind almost struck him for it.
“We were nearly murdered.”
“I know.”
“Then call 911.”
“They’re already coming.”
“Then we tell them we’re alive.”
“Not yet.”
Rosalind stared at him beneath the pier.
“You don’t get to make decisions for me after lying for fifteen years.”
Tobias’s jaw tightened.
“You’re right.”
That stopped her.
He continued.
“But if Garrett believes you survived, he destroys evidence before detectives understand what they’re looking for.”
Rosalind looked toward shore.
Garrett had finally begun performing grief.
He ran to the waterline as emergency vehicles approached.
He shouted Rosalind’s name.
Penelope clung to him.
Rosalind almost vomited.
Tobias handed her a waterproof phone.
“One call.”
“To whom?”
“Grace Holloway.”
Rosalind knew the name.
Former federal prosecutor.
Now outside counsel to Mercer Shipworks’ independent audit committee.
Rosalind had hired her six months earlier after noticing irregular invoices.
Garrett hated the decision.
“You’ve been working with Grace?”
“For nine months.”
Rosalind’s eyes narrowed.
“Behind my back.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because every time I tried to warn you about Garrett, you told him.”
Pain crossed her face.
Because it was true.
Tobias had made comments.
Garrett’s family was too interested in the shipyard.
Garrett’s consulting bills were strange.
Penelope spent too much time at Garrett’s office.
Rosalind had defended her husband.
Every time.
Tobias dialed.
Grace answered immediately.
“Tobias?”
“It happened.”
Silence.
Then:
“Rosalind?”
“Alive.”
Rosalind took the phone.
“Grace.”
The attorney exhaled audibly.
“Thank God.”
“Tobias says we shouldn’t tell anyone.”
“For the next few minutes, I agree.”
Rosalind’s anger sharpened.
“You too?”
“Listen to me. Emergency responders will search. We are not preventing rescue. Tobias already triggered an anonymous location alert for the vehicle. But if Garrett sabotaged the SUV, I want police to find the sabotage before Garrett has time to construct a story around your survival.”
Rosalind looked at Tobias.
“What story?”
Grace answered:
“That you tried to kill yourself.”
Rosalind went still.
“Why would anyone believe that?”
Tobias’s face darkened.
Grace said:
“Because Garrett has been building that story.”
Rosalind’s chest tightened.
“What are you talking about?”
“Medical appointments. Emails. Statements to your housekeeper. Notes that you’ve been confused, exhausted and emotionally unstable.”
The warm milk.
Rosalind whispered:
“Oh my God.”
Grace continued.
“I have a safe location ready. Police contact follows as soon as you’re secure.”
Tobias guided Rosalind through a drainage channel beneath the pier.
A former Mercer yard mechanic named Owen Pike waited downstream in a small maintenance boat.
Rosalind recognized him.
“Owen?”
He looked ashamed.
“Mrs. Mercer.”
“You knew Tobias could walk?”
“Yes.”
“How many people know?”
“Three.”
Rosalind laughed bitterly.
“Wonderful.”
They climbed aboard.
From the river, she watched Garrett answer detectives.
He held Penelope under the umbrella.
Rosalind could not hear everything.
But she saw him gesture toward the submerged SUV.
Then toward his chest.
Grief.
Shock.
Helplessness.
He was performing widowhood before anyone had recovered a body.
At a small industrial boathouse two miles downstream, Grace waited with dry clothes and an emergency physician she trusted.
Rosalind’s shoulder was bruised.
Her hands were cut.
Otherwise she had survived.
Tobias disappeared behind a partition.
When he returned, he had abandoned the wet wheelchair.
He stood in dark trousers.
Rosalind stared at him.
“Tell me everything.”
Tobias sat.
“The crash fifteen years ago injured my spine.”
“So you were paralyzed.”
“For eleven months.”
Rosalind’s face changed.
“What?”
“I started regaining movement.”
“And you told nobody?”
“I told Mom’s old neurologist. Dr. Levitt.”
“Why not me?”
“Because someone tried to kill me during rehab.”
Silence.
Tobias continued.
“My wheelchair brake failed on a hospital ramp.”
Rosalind’s stomach turned.
“At first I thought it was mechanical. Then Dr. Levitt found the brake cable had been cut.”
“Garrett?”
“I didn’t know Garrett then.”
But Tobias knew the Vale family.
Garrett’s father, Everett Vale, owned Chesapeake Maritime Holdings.
For decades, Vale wanted Mercer Shipworks.
Rosalind’s parents repeatedly rejected buyout offers.
Three weeks before their fatal crash, Everett threatened litigation over access rights to a shared marine channel.
The crash killed Thomas and Evelyn Mercer.
Tobias survived.
Rosalind, twenty-three at the time, became controlling shareholder.
Garrett entered her life four years later as a commercial attorney representing a shipbuilding customer.
Charming.
Helpful.
Patient.
Rosalind married him three years after that.
Tobias looked at her.
“I recovered enough to walk.”
“Fifteen years ago?”
“Fourteen.”
Rosalind stood.
“You watched me care for you. Remodel houses. Fight insurers. Arrange transportation.”
“I never took government disability money.”
“You took my life.”
Tobias’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
That answer made her angrier.
Grace stepped between them verbally.
“Rosalind.”
“No.”
Rosalind pointed at Tobias.
“You don’t get to turn this into noble sacrifice.”
“I’m not.”
“You lied every day.”
“Yes.”
“For fourteen years.”
“Yes.”
She turned away.
Silence.
Then Grace placed a tablet on the table.
“There’s something you need to see.”
A security camera near the river road had captured Garrett’s vehicle before Rosalind’s SUV left the Mercer estate.
Garrett parked behind the garage.
Opened Rosalind’s driver door.
Bent inside for nearly three minutes.
Then walked away.
Twenty minutes later, Rosalind drove off with Tobias in back.
The sabotaged belt.
Rosalind stared.
“Why was he near my car?”
Tobias answered:
“Because he expected you to be alone.”
“But you were with me.”
“He didn’t know.”
Rosalind remembered.
Tobias had called unexpectedly that morning asking for a ride to the shipyard archive building.
Garrett had already left.
Her brother being in the SUV had been accidental.
The accident that saved her life.
Grace said:
“And Garrett just gave police his first statement.”
Rosalind looked up.
“What did he say?”
Grace’s expression hardened.
“That you had been depressed for months.”
Rosalind whispered:
“He’s already doing it.”
“There’s more.”
Garrett claimed Rosalind had called him shortly before the crash and said:
“I can’t do this anymore.”
Rosalind stared.
“I never called him.”
Grace nodded.
“We checked your phone records.”
“No call.”
“Then how can he prove it?”
“He says you used an internet calling app.”
Rosalind laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
Grace did not smile.
“It gets worse.”
“What?”
“He told detectives you had recently discovered Penelope was pregnant.”
Rosalind’s face drained.
“And?”
“He says you became irrationally jealous because you suspected the baby might be his.”
The betrayal had already been rewritten.
May you like
Garrett had attempted to murder Rosalind.
Now he was preparing to make her jealousy the motive for her own death.
