Chapter 8 - THE CRASH WASN’T AN ACCIDENT
Evelyn read the sentence three times.
Each time, the words became harder to understand.
Marcus took the note from her.
“Evelyn.”
She didn’t hear him.
The room tilted.
Michael’s car.
Rain.
The guardrail.
The funeral.
Three years of guilt.
“What does that mean?” Chloe asked.
Evelyn turned to Detective Hart.
“I want Michael’s case reopened.”
Hart nodded once.
“I already called it in.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“You believe this?”
“I believe enough people are scared of what you know that I’m not dismissing anything.”
Natalie wiped her face.
“Daniel talked about Michael sometimes.”
Evelyn turned.
“What did he say?”
“I didn’t understand it.”
“What did he say?”
Natalie swallowed.
“He said Michael almost ruined everything.”
A horrible pressure built in Evelyn’s chest.
“What everything?”
“I don’t know.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“Think.”
Natalie squeezed her eyes shut.
“He mentioned a file.”
“What file?”
“Audit documents.”
Evelyn froze.
Michael had worked inside Cross Holdings before his death.
He wasn’t an executive.
He hated offices.
He hated suits.
But he was brilliant with numbers.
Three weeks before the accident, he had told Evelyn he found something strange inside a subsidiary.
She hadn’t listened.
She had been too busy.
Always too busy.
“Call me when it’s real,” she had told him.
Maybe it had been real.
Maybe Michael had known.
Evelyn’s voice turned quiet.
“What subsidiary?”
Natalie shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Marcus suddenly looked at Evelyn.
“Blue Harbor?”
She stared at him.
“How do you know that name?”
“Michael asked me about it.”
“When?”
“A week before he died.”
Evelyn felt sick.
“What did you tell him?”
“That it was one of Daniel’s consulting companies.”
She turned to Marcus.
“No. Daniel told me Blue Harbor belonged to an outside contractor.”
Marcus’s face hardened.
“So he lied to both of us.”
Detective Hart asked, “What did Blue Harbor do?”
Evelyn answered.
“Nothing.”
Everyone looked at her.
“That’s why Michael was suspicious.”
She walked toward the window.
“Millions flowed through it, but it had no employees.”
Chloe whispered, “A shell company.”
“Yes.”
“And my mother transferred money into it.”
Evelyn turned back.
“Yes.”
Chloe sat down.
“Oh God.”
Detective Hart’s phone rang.
She stepped away.
Evelyn stared at the note again.
Michael’s accident.
The missing money.
Daniel.
Victoria.
All connected.
Hart returned.
Her expression had changed.
“What?”
Evelyn asked.
“We pulled the archived police report from Michael’s crash.”
“And?”
“There was a witness.”
Evelyn frowned.
“No.”
“The report says there was.”
“No one told me.”
Hart looked angry.
“The witness claimed a black sedan forced Michael off the road.”
Evelyn’s mouth went dry.
“Why wasn’t that investigated?”
“The witness disappeared before the second interview.”
Marcus cursed.
Evelyn asked, “Name?”
Hart looked at the report.
“Thomas Reed.”
Marcus went still.
Evelyn looked at him.
“Reed?”
His face had lost all color.
“That’s my father.”
Silence.
Chloe stared at Marcus.
“Your father saw the crash?”
Marcus shook his head slowly.
“He died two years ago.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“Did he ever tell you?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
His voice cracked.
“I swear.”
Hart turned a page.
“There’s more.”
Evelyn’s heart hammered.
“What?”
“Thomas Reed left a statement with a lawyer six months before he died.”
Marcus stared.
“What statement?”
Hart looked up.
“One that names the driver of the black sedan.”
Evelyn whispered, “Who?”
The detective’s phone buzzed.
She read the message.
Then looked at Chloe.
The room changed.
Chloe understood before anyone spoke.
“No.”
May you like
Hart’s voice was careful.
“The driver was registered as Victoria Whitmore.”
