Chapter 8 - What Elena Saw
Elena slept for eleven hours.
When she woke, she asked for coffee and three locks on the door.
Emilio gave her both.
They sat at the farmhouse table while Pike recorded her statement.
"I wasn't in Madrid," Elena said.
"No kidding," Emilio replied.
She flinched.
He hated himself for the sarcasm.
"Sorry."
"No. You get to be angry."
"Why did you disappear?"
"Because Lucia told me to."
That shut him up.
Elena explained that Lucia had found Calvin's theft six months before the crash. At first it looked like ordinary embezzlement.
Then Lucia found the trust documents.
Calvin had been quietly building a case that Emilio was unstable after a series of panic attacks.
Emilio stared at her.
"I had three."
"I know."
"After Ava almost drowned."
"I know."
"How did Calvin get the records?"
"Doctor Preston."
Emilio felt the next betrayal before Elena said it.
Dr. Samuel Preston was not only Emilio's physician.
He had been their father's doctor.
A family friend.
"He sold access?" Mara asked.
Elena shook her head.
"He didn't sell it. He invested."
"In what?"
"A shell company Calvin controlled."
Emilio looked away.
Elena continued.
"Lucia planned to expose them at the board meeting. Three days before that meeting, Rowan followed her."
"To where?"
"To meet me."
Elena's hands started shaking.
"She told me she believed they were going to kill her."
Emilio's voice broke. "Why didn't she tell me?"
"She tried."
"No."
"She tried, Emilio. You were in Singapore. Calvin controlled your schedule. Rowan controlled your security. Every message went through people they owned."
That landed like a punch.
"What happened the night she died?"
Elena stared at the table.
"I followed her."
Everyone went still.
"She left my apartment at ten-forty. A black sedan followed. I followed the sedan."
"Did you see the crash?"
"Yes."
Emilio could barely speak.
"Was it an accident?"
Elena shook her head.
"No."
His chair scraped backward.
"What did you see?"
"The SUV slowed near the curve. Then it accelerated."
"Why?"
"I don't know. But before it went through the barrier, Lucia's brake lights never came on."
Emilio's eyes burned.
Elena's voice dropped.
"And the black sedan stopped."
"Who got out?"
"Rowan."
Emilio closed his eyes.
"He walked down to the wreck?"
"Yes."
"To help her?"
Elena started crying.
"No."
May you like
She looked at him.
"He walked back up carrying Lucia's phone."
