Chapter 7 - REMOVE FIRST
The brake part had vanished from official evidence years ago.
Now it was in Vanessa’s storage unit.
Pete Larkin was missing.
Ortiz placed an officer outside Richard’s house.
That night Leo woke every hour asking, “Anna there?”
“I’m here.”
At 3:40 a.m., my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LET HIM FALL.
A second message arrived.
YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE PART OF THIS FAMILY.
I showed Richard.
Vanessa had once said almost the same thing to me during an argument.
“You work here, Anna. Don’t confuse being needed with belonging.”
Marcus searched visitor logs.
One name appeared six times in four months.
Derek Cole.
Vanessa’s older brother.
He had visited as a “maintenance consultant.”
I remembered him asking where the security cameras were because he wanted the same system at home.
Police searched his apartment.
They found maps of Richard’s property, screenshots of the camera dashboard, and a folder marked A.
Inside were photographs of me.
At the grocery store.
At the playground.
Entering my apartment.
The latest was taken two nights before Leo fell.
On the back someone had written:
REMOVE FIRST.
Derek was arrested at a motel forty miles away.
He asked for a lawyer immediately.
Then he learned police had recovered Claire’s brake part.
That changed him.
He asked for a deal.
According to Derek, Vanessa’s plan had begun years before she met Richard.
She met Claire through the charity board and learned about the trust.
“She wanted access,” Derek said.
“To what?” Ortiz asked.
“The money. The family. Richard.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
Derek insisted Vanessa never intended Claire to die.
“She paid Pete to create a brake problem. Something small. A scare.”
“A brake failure is not a scare,” Richard snapped.
Derek looked down.
“I know.”
After Claire died and nobody connected Vanessa to the repair shop, she did not run.
She moved closer.
A year later, she arranged to “accidentally” meet Richard at a fundraiser.
Even their love story had been staged.
Then Ortiz asked about Leo.
May you like
Derek rubbed his face.
“She called him the obstacle.”
