Chapter 9 - The Man Richard Trusted MostNathan Shaw entered the police station wearing a navy suit and the irritated expression of a man accustomed to being invited everywhere he went.
He was forty-two, polished, wealthy, and almost offensively calm.
Richard watched through the interview-room glass.
Detective Ward sat opposite Nathan.
Vanessa's red phone rested inside an evidence bag between them.
“You recognize this?”
Nathan smiled.
“No.”
“You've exchanged more than two hundred messages with it.”
“Then apparently someone used my number.”
“The messages came from a prepaid phone registered through a company card.”
Nathan's smile weakened.
Ward slid a photograph across the table.
“Shaw Development Group.”
Nathan leaned back.
“I have thirty employees with access to expense cards.”
“Your assistant says only you use that particular card.”
Nathan shrugged.
“Then perhaps I bought a phone.”
“For Vanessa?”
Silence.
Richard felt sick.
Nathan had eaten at his table.
Held Ethan as a baby.
Spoken at Claire's funeral.
Helped Richard through grief.
Then introduced Richard to Vanessa at a charity dinner.
Richard suddenly straightened.
Introduced.
The word hit him differently now.
Nathan had introduced them.
Ward continued.
“Were you having an affair with Vanessa Cole?”
Nathan smiled again.
“I don't discuss my personal life.”
“Did Ethan discover your relationship?”
“No.”
“Did he take Vanessa's phone?”
“No idea.”
“Did you ask whether the kid had talked?”
Nathan's eyes flickered toward the evidence bag.
Only once.
Ward saw it.
“So that's a yes.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“Detective, are you accusing me of locking a child inside a freezer?”
“Not yet.”
Richard gripped the edge of the observation table.
Maria stood beside him.
“You shouldn't be here,” she whispered.
“Neither should you.”
Ward had allowed Maria to observe because her status had shifted dramatically after Ethan's statement.
Not cleared.
But no longer the obvious suspect.
Richard turned toward Maria.
“Did you ever see Nathan with Vanessa?”
“They were always around each other.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
Maria hesitated.
“Yes.”
Richard's stomach twisted.
“When?”
“Last year. In the garage.”
“What were they doing?”
“Arguing.”
“About?”
“I couldn't hear.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Maria looked at him sharply.
“Because two adults arguing in a garage isn't evidence of an affair.”
Richard nodded.
He deserved that.
Inside the room, Ward slid another photograph toward Nathan.
This one changed him.
“What is that?” Richard asked.
Maria leaned closer to the glass.
The photograph showed a highway toll record.
Ward said, “Your car passed Exit 18 at 9:43 p.m. six years ago.”
Nathan did not move.
“That road leads toward the location of Claire Cole's crash.”
Richard stopped breathing.
Ward continued.
“You told police you were in Boston that night.”
Nathan's face became unreadable.
Richard felt Maria grab his arm.
“How long have they known?” he whispered.
“They probably just pulled it.”
Ward asked, “Why were you there?”
Nathan stared at the photograph.
“My memory isn't perfect.”
“Convenient.”
“It was six years ago.”
“You remember attending Claire Cole's funeral?”
“Of course.”
“You remember comforting Richard?”
Nathan glanced toward the observation glass.
He couldn't see Richard.
But he knew.
“You remember introducing him to Vanessa two years later?”
Nathan's jaw tightened.
Ward leaned forward.
“What were you doing near Claire's car the night she died?”
“I want my attorney.”
Interview over.
Ward left the room several minutes later.
Richard met her in the hall.
“You think Nathan killed Claire?”
“I think I have questions.”
“He was there.”
“His car passed a toll point.”
“He lied.”
“Yes.”
“Vanessa knew Claire called Maria.”
Ward's expression sharpened.
“That part is new.”
Richard told her.
Ward wrote quickly.
Then a uniformed officer approached.
“Detective.”
He handed her a tablet.
Ward read.
“What?”
She looked up.
“The forensic team recovered deleted video from Vanessa's red phone.”
Richard's pulse accelerated.
“What video?”
Ward hesitated.
“It was recorded yesterday.”
“Of what?”
She turned the tablet.
The image was grainy.
Shot accidentally, perhaps from inside a pocket.
But the audio was clear.
Ethan's voice.
“Give it back!”
Vanessa:
“You had no right to touch my phone.”
Ethan:
“I'm telling Dad.”
Then Nathan's voice.
“Vanessa, calm down.”
A scuffle.
Footsteps.
Ethan breathing hard.
Then Vanessa said something that made Richard's entire body go cold.
“If he tells Richard, everything is over.”
Nathan answered,
“Then make sure he doesn't.”
The recording stopped.
Richard stared at the screen.
Maria whispered,
“Oh God.”
Richard looked through the interview-room glass.
Nathan sat alone.
Still calm.
Still polished.
May you like
Still waiting for his attorney.
And Richard understood that his son's nightmare had begun long before Maria opened the freezer door.
Related Stories
