Chapter 15 - The Call Vanessa Ignored
Vanessa finally told the truth in Rachel’s office.
Not all of it.
Enough.
“I found the SD card three weeks after Laura died.”
Michael sat across from her.
“You knew where she put it?”
“I saw her with the rabbit.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I was scared.”
“Stop saying scared like it is a legal defense.”
Vanessa flinched.
“What was on the card?”
“Daniel entering the garage.”
“And?”
“Walking toward Laura’s car.”
“And?”
“He opened the hood.”
Michael’s vision narrowed.
Rachel raised a hand.
“Did the footage show what he did?”
“No. Another vehicle blocked the camera.”
“Where is the card?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Daniel has it.”
“How?”
“He found out I had it.”
“When?”
“About six months after Laura died.”
“Why keep it?”
“Insurance.”
Michael almost laughed.
“You blackmailed the man you thought might have killed my sister?”
“I didn’t think he killed her.”
“What did you think?”
“I thought he wanted something from the car.”
Michael stood.
Rachel told him to sit.
He did not.
Vanessa looked up at him.
“The morning Laura died, she called me.”
“At five forty-nine.”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she knew about me and Daniel. She said she was going to tell you.”
Michael waited.
“That’s all?”
“No.”
Vanessa stared at her hands.
“She said someone had been in her garage space.”
Michael’s throat tightened.
“She was angry. I told her she was paranoid.”
“And at six seventeen?”
“She called Daniel.”
“How do you know?”
“He called me immediately after.”
“What did he say?”
Vanessa’s voice faded.
“He said Laura was driving toward Aspen and freaking out about her brakes.”
Michael stared.
“She told him the brakes were failing.”
“Yes.”
“And what did you do?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“Nothing.”
“You did nothing?”
“He said she was exaggerating.”
“She called again.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Michael remembered Sophie saying Vanessa’s phone kept ringing.
“What happened?”
“I ignored it.”
Michael could barely speak.
“Why?”
“Because I was angry. Because I thought she was trying to scare me.”
“Did she leave voicemail?”
“Yes.”
Rachel leaned forward.
“What did it say?”
Vanessa began crying.
“She said, ‘Vanessa, if you know what Daniel did, tell Michael.’”
Michael felt as if someone had punched the air out of him.
“What did you do with it?”
“I deleted it.”
He stood again.
This time Rachel did not stop him.
Michael walked to the window.
Snow covered downtown rooftops.
He could not look at Vanessa.
“You heard my sister asking for help minutes before she died.”
Vanessa sobbed quietly.
“And you protected yourself.”
“Yes.”
Michael turned.
“Why tell me now?”
“Because Daniel has been threatening me since the airport.”
“With prison?”
“With everything.”
“What is everything?”
“My mother. The money. The affair. The statement about Laura disappearing.”
Michael shook his head.
“You still think your biggest problem is what people think of you.”
Vanessa wiped her face.
“No.”
“What, then?”
“I think Daniel is going to destroy the company and leave all of us carrying the crimes.”
Rachel asked, “How?”
Vanessa reached into her handbag.
Michael tensed.
She removed a folded document.
A draft asset-purchase agreement.
Reed Aeronautics’ maintenance division.
Sale price: forty-two million dollars.
Buyer:
Apex Flight Systems LLC.
Priya examined the ownership records.
Within an hour she found the hidden chain.
Apex was controlled through two subsidiaries.
The ultimate beneficiary was a trust tied to Daniel’s brother.
Daniel was preparing to sell Reed Aeronautics’ most profitable division to himself at a discounted price.
Vanessa pointed at the closing date.
Ten days.
“If the board approves this,” she said, “the company will receive enough cash to cover the missing money.”
Michael understood.
Daniel was not only stealing an asset.
He was erasing the hole in the books.
“And then?”
“He leaves.”
“Where?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“That was the flight from the airport.”
Michael stared.
“New York?”
“New York first.”
“For what?”
“To meet the private lender financing Apex.”
Michael looked at the woman who had left Sophie freezing because this plan mattered more than a child.
Then Vanessa said:
“There is a copy of the red SD card.”
Michael’s pulse surged.
May you like
“Where?”
“In Daniel’s safe-deposit box.”
