Chapter 5
St. Agnes had closed eight years earlier.
The abandoned rehabilitation center stood outside the city behind rusted gates and dead trees.
Police surrounded it before dawn.
I was ordered to remain outside.
I ignored that order.
Ruiz caught me near a side entrance.
“If Vanessa sees you, she could hurt your mother.”
“She threatened my daughter.”
“And that is why you need to let us handle this.”
A crashing sound came from inside.
Then Mom screamed.
Ruiz drew her weapon and entered with two officers.
I followed at a distance.
The hall smelled of dust and chemicals.
A wheelchair stood beside an open door.
It was empty.
We found Mom in a treatment room tied to a metal chair.
An oxygen tube ran beneath her nose.
A man in medical scrubs stood behind her holding a syringe.
He froze when the officers entered.
“Drop it!” Ruiz shouted.
The syringe hit the floor.
The man surrendered.
Vanessa was gone.
Mom’s face was bruised.
I knelt beside her as an officer cut the restraints.
“Did she hurt you?”
“She kept asking about Michael’s car.”
“Why?”
“Because something is hidden inside it.”
I thought about Melissa’s message to Richard.
“Where is the car?”
Mom looked toward the arrested man.
“Not here.”
The man claimed Vanessa had hired him through Lucas Bennett, her older brother.
Lucas had a criminal record for fraud and illegal gambling.
Police traced North Valley Consulting to one of his former business partners.
The three hundred thousand dollars had been split across several accounts.
Only eighty thousand remained.
At the hospital, Mom finally told me what happened the night Michael died.
Vanessa had met Michael at a motel.
She was not having an affair with him.
She was begging him to remain silent about Richard’s theft from the family company.
Michael refused.
Vanessa followed him when he drove away.
“They argued inside his car,” Mom said. “Vanessa grabbed the wheel.”
The car struck the guardrail.
Michael was thrown from the passenger side before the vehicle caught fire.
“Was he alive?” I asked.
“For a few minutes.”
Mom’s voice broke.
“I reached the scene before the police. Michael told me Vanessa caused the crash.”
“How did you get there?”
“He called me after the impact.”
“And Vanessa?”
“She had cuts on her hands. She begged me to protect her. You loved her. Her mother was dying. She said it was an accident.”
“You covered it up.”
“Yes.”
I stood and walked toward the window.
For twelve years, I had mourned my brother beside the woman responsible for his death.
I had married her.
I had built a family with her.
“You let me sleep beside Michael’s killer.”
“I was afraid you would destroy your life trying to punish her.”
“My life was already destroyed. I just didn’t know it.”
Mom began to cry.
I wanted to comfort her.
I could not.
Detective Ruiz entered.
“The man from the clinic gave us Lucas’s address.”
“Where?”
“An apartment downtown. We searched it.”
“And?”
“We found your wife’s passport and forty thousand dollars in cash. Lucas was gone.”
“Was Melissa there?”
“No, but we found blood in the bathroom.”
Mom gripped the blanket.
“Melissa.”
Ruiz continued.
“We also recovered photographs of your daughter taken over the last six months.”
My heart stopped.
“Why were they watching Emma?”
“We think Vanessa was preparing leverage against your mother.”
My phone buzzed.
A video appeared.
Melissa was tied to a chair in a dark room.
Blood ran from her forehead.
Lucas stood behind her.
“Your wife says the key opened Michael’s box,” he said. “But the evidence we need is still inside his car.”
Melissa lifted her head.
“Daniel, don’t give them anything.”
Lucas struck the back of her chair.
She cried out.
“You have six hours,” he said. “Bring the car to the old Hart factory.”
The screen went black.
Mom covered her mouth.
I looked at Ruiz.
“Do you know where the car is?”
“No.”
Mom did.
I could see it in her eyes.
“Tell us,” I said.
She shook her head.
“If that evidence disappears, Michael will never receive justice.”
“If you stay silent, Melissa may die.”
“She caused my accident.”
“She is still your daughter.”
Mom stared at me for several seconds.
Then she reached beneath her hospital gown and removed a chain from around her neck.
A storage key hung from it.
“Michael’s car is in a private warehouse across the state line.”
Ruiz took the key.
Mom caught my hand before I left.
“There’s one more thing inside that car.”
“What?”
“A recording Michael made before he died.”
“Of Vanessa?”
May you like
Mom shook her head.
“Of your father ordering Vanessa to stop him at any cost.”
