Chapter 12 - THE OTHER DRIVER
Miles claimed Daniel had authorized him to collect the camera before his death. Nora asked him to produce that authorization. He sent an email bearing Daniel's name, dated three days after the funeral.
Clara stared at it. “They're not even trying to hide it anymore.”
“That's what people do when they think money will protect them,” Nora said. “They start mistaking pressure for proof.”
Vega tracked down the tow-truck driver who recovered Daniel's SUV. His name was Graham Bell. He lived in an apartment above an auto shop and had told his supervisor that the crash scene looked wrong. The report had never reached the investigator.
“I saw somebody near the wreck before the highway patrol arrived,” Graham said when Vega interviewed him. “A guy in a gray sedan. He reached through the busted window and took a small case.”
“Can you identify him?”
“I saw the back of his head. I won't pretend I saw his face.”
Graham did remember the sedan's damaged rear taillight. Security cameras at a gas station two miles away had recorded a similar car that morning. Investigators requested the original footage.
Later, Graham called Clara from a blocked number. He didn't ask for money. He sounded terrified.
“A woman came to my shop,” he said. “She said she'd pay my medical bills if I stopped talking.”
“Did she give you a name?”
“She didn't have to. I recognized her from the newspapers.”
“Beatrice?”
Graham swallowed audibly. “She left a photograph of my daughter on the counter.”
A crash rang out behind him. He gasped and shouted, “Get away from my door!”
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The line went dead.
