Chapter 16 - What Rebecca Was Really Doing
For a moment, I thought Eric had finally lost his mind.
“You expect me to believe Rebecca killed herself?”
“No.” He winced and pressed a hand to his bandaged side. “That’s not what I said.”
“Then explain it.”
Eric stared at the ceiling.
“The night she died, I found her crouched beside the car with the wrench. She had loosened the line that Emily repaired.”
“Why?”
“She was taking pictures.”
I said nothing.
“She needed proof of exactly where the line had been cut the first time. Dad’s mechanic had already replaced some parts and she thought the evidence would disappear. She loosened the repaired section so she could photograph the tool marks and show how easy it was to sabotage.”
“And then?”
“I yelled at her. I told her she was acting crazy. She said she was going to take another car home.”
My chest tightened.
“But she didn’t.”
“No.” Eric’s eyes filled. “Dad showed up. They argued in the parking lot. I left because I was a coward.”
“What did Dad say?”
“That if she went to the police, he would make sure you lost the company and Noah lost his trust.”
I leaned closer. “What did you do before she died, Eric?”
He looked at me for a long time.
“I called Martin.”
The room went silent.
“I told him Rebecca had evidence. I told him she was threatening Dad. I thought he’d scare her, take the files, something.”
My hands started shaking.
“You sent him to her.”
“Yes.”
“And afterward you helped Dad bury the report.”
“Yes.”
There it was.
Not murder with his own hands. Something uglier in a different way: he had opened the door and then spent years pretending he never heard what came through it.
A nurse entered and handed me an envelope recovered from Eric’s belongings.
“Your brother asked that you have this if anything happened to him.”
Inside was a memory card.
Eric whispered, “I stole that from Martin two years ago.”
“What’s on it?”
“The parking garage camera from the night Rebecca died.”
I put it into my laptop.
The grainy video showed Rebecca leaving her car and walking away.
Two minutes later, Martin Hale appeared.
He knelt beside the driver’s side wheel.
May you like
Then my father stepped into frame.
And watched him cut the line.
