Chapter 6 - The Crash Wasn't an Accident
Lucia died when her SUV left Pacific Coast Highway in heavy rain.
The police called it hydroplaning.
The insurance company called it driver error.
Emilio had called it the worst day of his life.
Now he called Dr. Helena Ward, the independent forensic pathologist Mara trusted.
Helena studied Lucia's copied autopsy for twenty minutes.
"What bothers you?" Emilio asked.
"Everything after page four."
She pointed to a line.
"The initial blood sample showed a sedative."
"I was told there were no drugs."
"The final report says the first result was contamination."
"Could it have been?"
"Yes."
He hated that answer.
Helena looked at him.
"But the chain-of-custody signature is wrong."
Mara leaned closer. "How do you know?"
"Because the technician whose name is here died six months before Lucia's crash."
Silence.
Emilio stared at the page.
"Someone falsified it."
"Someone falsified at least part of it."
Ava was in the next room with Marcus, coloring.
Emilio lowered his voice.
"Can you prove she was drugged?"
"If the retained samples still exist."
They didn't.
The county evidence unit reported that Lucia's samples had been destroyed after a clerical retention error.
Mara swore.
Then Marcus entered.
"Company security just flagged Rowan's corporate card."
"Where?"
"A private airfield in Van Nuys."
Emilio stood.
"No."
Mara caught his arm. "You're not going."
"He knows what happened to Lucia."
"And he expects you to chase him."
Marcus nodded. "She's right."
Emilio looked toward the room where Ava was laughing softly at something on television.
He sat back down.
"Find another way."
Marcus did.
He called an old federal investigator named Owen Pike, now working corporate fraud.
By afternoon, Pike had pulled flight manifests.
Rowan had booked a charter to Belize.
Departure: 4:30 p.m.
Passenger list: one.
Then Pike called back.
"There's a second reservation under a protected alias."
"Whose?"
"I can't confirm."
"Try."
"I did."
Emilio heard keys clicking.
Then Pike stopped.
"That's strange."
"What?"
"The alias was created through a medical privacy service."
Mara's face tightened.
Pike continued.
"The emergency contact attached to it is Calvin Reed."
Emilio stood again.
"Who is the passenger?"
Pike exhaled.
"A woman listed as Elena Vega."
Emilio's blood went cold.
Elena was his younger sister.
And she had supposedly been living in Madrid for the last three years.
He grabbed his phone.
Her number was disconnected.
Then a text arrived from an unknown sender.
A photograph.
Elena, bound to a chair.
May you like
Below it were five words.
BRING THE RED KEY ALONE.
