Chapter 13 - Fire in the Red Rocks
Rachel called 911 before Margot reached the porch.
Gabriel locked the front door.
Victoria stared outside.
“I know those men.”
“Who are they?”
“Vale security.”
Margot pounded on the door.
“Tessa!”
Her voice echoed through the house.
“I know you’re in there!”
Gabriel looked at me.
“Stay back.”
Margot pounded again.
“This is private property!”
Victoria almost laughed.
“It’s mine.”
Margot shouted through the door.
“My father wants his documents.”
I looked toward Rachel.
“That sounds useful.”
She nodded.
“My phone is recording.”
Margot continued.
“You don’t understand what you found!”
I stepped closer to the door.
Gabriel caught my arm.
“No.”
“I’m not opening it.”
I raised my voice.
“Then explain it.”
Silence outside.
Margot responded.
“My father was protecting your family.”
“From what?”
“From scandal.”
Victoria whispered, “That’s a lie.”
I kept my eyes on the door.
“What scandal?”
“Your mother was trying to destroy everyone.”
My pulse jumped.
“By exposing fraud?”
“She was obsessed.”
There it was again.
The same word Bennett’s family had used about me.
Obsessed.
Emotional.
Unstable.
Women became unreliable whenever their questions became inconvenient.
I raised my voice.
“Why did you bring gasoline?”
Silence.
Then one of the men said something I couldn’t hear.
Margot cursed.
Rachel smiled tightly.
“She realized.”
Sirens sounded faintly in the distance.
Margot immediately backed away.
The men moved toward the vehicles.
Gabriel looked through the side window.
“They’re leaving.”
“No.”
I opened my phone camera and began filming through the glass.
One man placed the gasoline can inside the Range Rover.
Clear.
Visible.
Margot saw me.
Her face twisted.
Then she ran toward the door again.
“You think Bennett loves you?”
I kept recording.
“He doesn’t!”
She slammed her palm against the glass.
“He was going to leave you!”
I said nothing.
“He told me everything!”
Still nothing.
“He told me after the baby was born, you’d be gone!”
My blood went cold.
Victoria stared at the door.
“What does that mean?”
Margot realized she had said too much.
The sirens became louder.
She ran back to the car.
The SUVs sped away just before two sheriff’s vehicles came around the curve.
They did not get far.
Deputies stopped them at the bottom of the private road.
The gasoline can was recovered.
So were two boxes of industrial fire starters.
Margot claimed they were for a camping trip.
Nobody believed her.
By midnight, she had an attorney.
By one, Damian Vale had called Bennett twelve times.
By two, Rachel received confirmation that investigators were examining potential attempted evidence destruction.
I sat at the kitchen table in Gabriel’s home, exhausted.
The baby kicked.
I whispered, “I know.”
Gabriel sat across from me.
“You need rest.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“Because you’re pregnant.”
“And apparently emotional.”
His expression softened.
“Your mother would hate that joke.”
“She would love it.”
He smiled.
For the first time all day, I felt something warm.
Then Rachel entered.
Her face erased it.
“We recovered preliminary data from one USB drive.”
I sat straighter.
“And?”
“There’s audio.”
My heart jumped.
“What kind?”
“A recorded conversation.”
“Between who?”
She looked at Victoria.
“Charles Halloway and Damian Vale.”
Victoria’s face drained.
“When?”
“Two days before Eleanor’s crash.”
Nobody moved.
Rachel placed a laptop on the table.
“The forensic team preserved the original and created a working copy.”
She pressed play.
Static.
Then a man’s voice.
Charles.
“You need to stop her.”
Damian answered.
“She won’t listen to me.”
Charles again.
“Then make sure she doesn’t get to the board meeting.”
My skin became cold.
Damian’s voice lowered.
“What exactly are you asking?”
A pause.
Then Charles.
“I’m asking you to solve the problem.”
The recording ended.
Gabriel’s face looked gray.
Victoria covered her mouth.
I could barely breathe.
Rachel raised a hand.
“This does not prove they caused the crash.”
I knew.
Legally.
Logically.
I knew.
Then another recovered file appeared in the report.
A phone log.
Damian Vale called Charles Halloway at 6:14 a.m. the morning my mother died.
May you like
Her crash occurred at 6:48.
And suddenly the story I had believed for thirteen years began collapsing completely.
