Chapter 7 - Claire
Claire arrived after midnight.
Blonde hair pulled back.
No makeup.
Gray coat over hospital scrubs she did not belong in.
Vivian let her inside.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither should you.”
Adrian closed the blinds.
“Lower your voice.”
Claire looked at me.
“Is she really unconscious?”
Nobody answered.
She moved closer.
I smelled her perfume.
The same perfume I had noticed on Adrian’s jacket three months earlier.
He told me the office receptionist wore it.
Claire whispered:
“I didn’t agree to this.”
Adrian stiffened.
“To what?”
“The terrace.”
My heartbeat accelerated.
Claire continued.
“I moved money. I changed records. I helped with the deed.”
Vivian hissed:
“Stop.”
“But I never agreed to hurt her.”
Adrian’s voice turned sharp.
“No one asked you to.”
“She fell right after you said it would solve everything.”
That was enough to prove conspiracy was not as clean as I assumed.
Claire was guilty of fraud.
Maybe obstruction.
But she was not necessarily part of the original physical plan.
Good investigators do not force evidence into the story they want.
They let the story change.
Claire started crying.
“You told me the railing was already unsafe.”
Adrian said nothing.
“It was.”
Claire looked at her.
“Then why did you pay the contractor?”
The person investigators needed.
Adrian grabbed Claire’s wrist.
“Go home.”
She pulled away.
“Don’t touch me.”
He whispered:
“You’re ruining everything.”
Claire laughed through tears.
“No. You ruined it when she didn’t die.”
My hand remained still.
Inside my palm, the transmitter caught every word.
Then Claire leaned over my bed.
“Hannah.”
Her voice broke.
“If you can hear me…”
Vivian stepped forward.
“Don’t.”
Claire ignored her.
“I’m sorry.”
Adrian grabbed her shoulder.
“Get off me.”
Then Claire said the one thing that shocked everyone in the room.
“I already gave Marcus the password.”
Adrian froze.
“What password?”
May you like
Claire wiped her face.
“To Crown Meridian.”
