Chapter 16 - Leo’s Recording
Vanessa saw the phone in Leo’s hand.
Her expression cracked.
“Give me that.”
Leo threw it.
The phone skidded across the stone floor toward Anna.
Vanessa grabbed for him.
Anna lunged at the same time.
Richard reached them first.
He pulled Leo free and turned his body around the child as officers pinned Vanessa against a planter.
For several seconds, the conservatory was nothing but shouting, broken glass, and Leo crying, “Daddy! Daddy!”
Graham escaped through a side door.
Vanessa did not.
Mara cuffed her.
“You are under arrest.”
Vanessa laughed breathlessly. “For what? A family argument?”
Mara listed charges until Vanessa stopped smiling.
Anna picked up the phone.
The recording had started nearly twenty minutes earlier.
Vanessa had apparently activated it herself, perhaps to document Richard handing over the trust.
Instead, it captured her argument with Graham.
His voice came through clearly:
“You said the car would look like an accident.”
Vanessa answered, “It did until Claire left files everywhere.”
Richard closed his eyes.
Mara took the phone carefully.
“That is the closest thing to a confession we have.”
Vanessa suddenly shouted, “He cut the brake line!”
Everyone turned.
She pointed toward the door Graham had used.
“He did it. I never touched Claire’s car.”
Richard stared at her.
“You knew.”
Vanessa’s mouth opened.
He stepped closer, holding Leo.
“You knew he was going to sabotage her car.”
“I thought he was going to scare her.”
“You watched her drive away.”
Vanessa started crying.
“I panicked.”
“And then you spent two years stealing from her son.”
“I was fixing things.”
“No.” Richard’s voice was quiet. “You were fixing your life with everyone else’s pain.”
Police took her away.
Mrs. Bell was freed and medically checked.
Leo fell asleep against Richard before they even left the estate.
Anna thought the worst was over.
Then Mara returned with bad news.
Graham had reached the road and stolen a patrol vehicle.
“He knows Vanessa is in custody,” Mara said. “He knows the evidence is collapsing.”
Richard looked at Leo.
“What will he do?”
Mara’s face was grim.
“Run, if we’re lucky.”
“And if we’re not?” Anna asked.
“He’ll destroy whatever still connects him to Claire’s death.”
Owen, now cleared of intentional involvement, called from the security office.
“I know what he’ll go after.”
“What?” Richard asked.
“The original garage server. Claire’s video wasn’t the only file stored there.”
“Where is it?”
Owen hesitated.
“In Blackwood Tower.”
May you like
Richard’s corporate headquarters.
On the forty-third floor.
