Chapter 11 - CLAIRE’S LETTER
Claire’s envelope held a letter and a memory card.
Richard read the letter alone first.
When he came out, his eyes were red.
Claire had written that a woman named Vanessa Cole kept appearing around the family foundation and asking questions about Leo’s trust.
She had seen Vanessa near Leo’s daycare twice.
Claire also wrote something Richard had never known.
She was planning to stay with her sister for a while.
Not end the marriage.
I need space, she wrote. I still love you. Please remember that if I lose the courage to say it out loud.
Richard sat down hard.
For three years he had believed Claire was preparing to leave him.
The memory card was worse.
A voice memo played Claire’s voice through the interview room.
“If anything happens to me, ask why Vanessa Cole knows so much about Leo’s trust.”
Nobody moved.
It was not proof Vanessa intended Claire’s death.
But it proved she had lied about never knowing her.
By evening, prosecutors expanded the case.
The next morning Vanessa’s attorney requested a private meeting.
She would only speak if I attended.
I refused.
“I’m not her priest.”
Then a handwritten note arrived.
Anna,
You think you saved him. You only delayed what was already arranged. If you want to know why I chose the stairs, come hear it from me.
I should have ignored it.
Instead, I went.
Vanessa sat behind glass in the detention center after her bail had been revoked for witness intimidation.
“You look tired,” she said.
“You pushed a toddler down stairs.”
“I knew you were there.”
“That does not make it better.”
“I knew you would catch him.”
“You hoped.”
For the first time, irritation cracked her calm.
“You were always the problem.”
“Because Leo trusted me?”
“Because he listened to you.”
I leaned closer.
“Why the stairs?”
She smiled faintly.
“Because the camera angle was weak.”
My pulse jumped.
Behind the observation glass, Ortiz stood up.
Vanessa kept talking.
“It wasn’t supposed to show my hand.”
Her lawyer grabbed her arm.
“Stop.”
Too late.
She had just admitted the part she had denied from the beginning.
May you like
And then she added one more thing.
“You still don’t know who gave me Richard’s password.”
