Chapter 12 - The Old Accident
Daniel called Rachel after the meeting. She remembered Laura's accident clearly: a rainy road, a late call, and a police report that had never raised suspicion. Vanessa had not been part of their lives then, but Eric had known Laura through a business event and had occasionally done bookkeeping for one of Daniel's suppliers.
Daniel found the old accident file in a box of family papers. The report described a single-car crash caused by wet pavement. There was no evidence of another vehicle. Laura had been driving home from a school fundraiser, and the only unusual detail was a call to Daniel that he had missed because he was in a meeting.
Mark warned him not to connect unrelated tragedies without evidence. “A suspicious person can say something designed to frighten you. It doesn't mean the old accident was anything other than an accident.”
Daniel agreed, but he asked the police department whether the case file could be reviewed in light of the new information. The request did not accuse anyone; it asked whether any records had been overlooked.
Meanwhile, Detective Grant received a message from Eric's former assistant. She said she'd seen Eric and Vanessa together several times before the wedding and had been asked to prepare invoices for consulting work that never took place. She had kept copies because the amounts seemed wrong.
The assistant gave the records to the detective, who compared them with the Northstar transfers. Several dates matched.
Jake looked at him. “Do you believe me now?”
May you like
Jake's eyes filled, not with relief exactly, but with the pain of how long he'd waited to hear it.
Then Detective Grant called again. They had recovered a deleted message from Vanessa's phone that mentioned the barbecue by name—and it had been sent the night before the party.
