Chapter 18 - THE WOMAN WHO SURVIVED THE CRASH|
Sera played the recording twice before showing Adrian.
He listened without speaking.
Then he called Marcus's replacement, a former federal investigator named Rachel Morgan, who had been helping them organize the evidence.
Rachel arrived within an hour.
She listened to the message and opened an old case file.
“Eleanor's accident involved another vehicle,” she explained. “The driver was a woman named Katherine Bell. She survived the collision but disappeared before the investigation concluded.”
“Why?” Sera asked.
“Her statement contradicted the official report. She claimed Eleanor's brakes had failed before the crash, and that another vehicle had been following them.”
“Was she ever found?”
Rachel shook her head.
“Her identity was changed through a witness protection arrangement, but the program's records were incomplete.”
Adrian looked at the photograph of the wrecked car.
“My father told me the accident was caused by a mechanical failure.”
“Perhaps he believed that,” Rachel said. “Or perhaps he needed you to believe it.”
They spent the next forty-eight hours searching for Katherine Bell.
The breakthrough came from an old insurance document linking her to a small town in Michigan.
Katherine now worked at a veterinary clinic under a different surname. When Rachel contacted her, she agreed to meet them in a public place.
Sera went with Adrian.
Katherine was in her sixties, with silver hair and careful eyes. She recognized Eleanor's photograph immediately.
“I've waited a long time for someone to ask about her,” she said.
Adrian leaned forward.
“Did my father cause the accident?”
Katherine looked at him.
“Your father wasn't in the car that night. But he knew the brakes had been tampered with.”
Adrian's face went pale.
“Who was driving the other vehicle?”
“A man from his security team. He followed us for several miles. When Eleanor lost control, he stopped long enough to see whether she was alive.”
Katherine's hands trembled.
“Then he left.”
Sera felt sick.
“Why didn't you tell the police?”
“I did. The report disappeared. Someone threatened my daughter, and I was told that if I spoke again, she would be next.”
Adrian lowered his head.
“My mother died because of my family.”
Katherine reached across the table.
“Your mother died because one man believed he could decide whose life mattered.”
She gave Rachel a sealed envelope.
Inside was a photograph of the man who had followed Eleanor's car.
Sera recognized him immediately.
He had been standing beside Vincent at the foundation gala.
But Adrian recognized something else.
The man was his father's former head of security.
And according to the company's records, he had died four years earlier.
Rachel studied the photograph.
“He's alive.”
Adrian's phone vibrated.
An unknown number had sent a message.
Stop looking for ghosts. The next funeral will be yours.
A second message followed.
It contained a photograph of Daniel leaving the hospital.
Sera grabbed Adrian's arm.
“Someone is watching my father.”
Adrian stood.
“Rachel, get him somewhere safe.”
Then he looked at Sera.
“We're done letting them decide who gets to be afraid.”
For the first time, she saw something different in his expression.
Not rage.
Not the cold determination that had made him feared.
May you like
Hope.
And hope, she realized, could be far more dangerous to a man like Vincent Vale than any weapon.
