Chapter 4 - A Dead Woman’s PhoneClaire woke in a hospital room after dark.
For several seconds she didn’t remember where she was.
Then her ribs moved.
Pain stabbed through her chest.
The waterfall came back instantly.
Ethan’s hands.
The fall.
His expression.
Claire opened her eyes.
Deputy Ruiz sat beside the window.
“You’re awake.”
“What happened?”
“Concussion. Two cracked ribs. Dislocated shoulder that’s already been reduced. Twenty-three stitches near your hairline. Nothing the doctors expect to be permanent.”
Claire stared at the ceiling.
“I should be dead.”
Ruiz didn’t disagree.
“Does Ethan know?”
“No.”
Claire turned toward her.
Ruiz stood.
“The sheriff approved a temporary information hold. As far as anyone outside this room and a small number of rescue personnel knows, you’re still missing.”
“How temporary?”
“Very.”
Claire understood.
Police couldn’t fake her death indefinitely.
“What about the phone?”
Ruiz pulled a chair closer.
“The device hidden in your backpack is prepaid. No contacts saved. Most messages deleted.”
“Most?”
“Digital forensics is working on it.”
“Who received the message?”
“We’re tracing the number.”
Claire remembered Ethan taking her backpack several times during the hike.
He could easily have hidden the phone that morning.
“What did he tell police?”
Ruiz opened a notebook.
“He says you were standing near the edge. You stepped backward because you wanted a photograph with the falls behind you. Your foot slipped.”
Claire laughed once.
It hurt.
“He’s lying.”
“He also says he jumped toward you and missed.”
“He didn’t move.”
“He has an injury on his right palm consistent with scraping rock.”
Claire looked at Ruiz.
“He did that afterward.”
“Possible.”
“You don’t believe me.”
“I believe you believe he pushed you.”
Claire’s anger flared.
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
Ruiz held her gaze.
“It isn’t.”
Claire turned away.
Then Ruiz placed something on the bedside table.
A plastic evidence bag.
Inside was Claire’s sports watch.
“We found this caught on a branch below the falls.”
Claire touched the bag.
The watch face was cracked.
“Why is this important?”
“Your watch recorded your hike.”
Claire looked back.
“GPS?”
“GPS. Heart rate. Elevation.”
“So?”
Ruiz leaned closer.
“At 2:17 p.m., your location changes approximately twelve feet in less than one second.”
Claire understood.
“A push.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“The defense would argue the reading came from the fall itself.”
Claire almost shouted.
“Then what proves it?”
Ruiz’s expression changed.
“There may be something.”
Claire waited.
“At 4:06 p.m., dispatch received an anonymous call.”
“About me?”
“A woman said she witnessed a man push someone into Raven Falls.”
Claire’s entire body went still.
“A woman?”
“She refused to give her name.”
“Why?”
“We don’t know.”
“What exactly did she see?”
“She said she was taking landscape photographs from the ridge.”
Claire remembered nothing about a photographer.
Ruiz continued.
“She said she photographed the incident.”
Claire sat forward despite the pain.
“She has a picture?”
“She claims she does.”
“Then arrest him.”
“We need the image.”
“Get it.”
“We’re trying.”
Claire saw hesitation.
“What happened?”
“The caller disconnected.”
“Call her back.”
“Blocked number.”
Claire stared at Ruiz.
“Did she send the photograph?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“We don’t know.”
A knock interrupted them.
A nurse entered.
“You have someone asking about Ms. Bennett.”
Claire froze.
Ruiz stood immediately.
“Who?”
The nurse checked her tablet.
“Ava Bennett.”
Claire’s breath escaped.
“My daughter.”
Ruiz relaxed slightly.
“I’ll speak to her first.”
“No.”
Claire grabbed the rail.
“Bring her in.”
Ava entered thirty seconds later.
Twenty-three years old.
Dark blond hair.
Claire’s eyes.
She crossed the room so quickly that the nurse barely moved aside.
“Mom.”
Ava stopped before touching her, terrified she might cause more pain.
Claire reached out.
Ava collapsed against her.
For the first time that day, Claire truly broke.
“I’m okay,” she whispered.
Ava cried into her shoulder.
“No, you’re not.”
Claire closed her eyes.
After several minutes, Ava sat back.
Then something changed in her expression.
Anger.
“I told you.”
Claire knew exactly what she meant.
“Ava…”
“I told you something was wrong with him.”
“Not now.”
“Yes, now.”
Ruiz watched silently.
Ava wiped her face.
“Two weeks ago Ethan called me.”
Claire frowned.
“What?”
“He asked me questions about your will.”
The room became quiet.
“What questions?”
“He wanted to know whether you had changed it.”
Claire’s pulse increased.
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him you weren’t stupid.”
Claire stared at her daughter.
Ava reached into her purse.
“There’s something else.”
She removed a printed email.
“I thought it was spam. Then you disappeared.”
Claire took it.
The message came from an insurance company she recognized.
Subject:
BENEFICIARY CHANGE CONFIRMATION.
Claire’s hands began shaking.
“I never changed this.”
Ava looked at Ruiz.
“How much is the policy?”
Claire read further.
The answer appeared halfway down the page.
$3,000,000.
Primary beneficiary:
Ethan Parker.
Claire stared at the name until the letters blurred.
Then Deputy Ruiz’s phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Her expression hardened.
“What?”
Claire asked immediately.
Ruiz ended the call.
“The anonymous photographer contacted dispatch again.”
“Did she send the picture?”
“No.”
“What did she say?”
Ruiz hesitated.
“She said Ethan isn’t who you think he is.”
Claire felt cold.
May you like
Then Ruiz delivered the second part.
“She also said you aren’t the first woman he pushed.”
Related Stories
