Chapter 15 - The Name on the Report“No.”
Richard said it before anyone else could.
“No.”
Lily stared at him.
His face held genuine shock.
Not the defensive panic she had feared.
Confusion.
“That’s impossible.”
Detective Alvarez brought Thomas inside under supervision.
Nobody wanted the conversation at the gate anymore.
They gathered in the formal dining room.
Thomas sat at one end.
Richard at the other.
Lily sat beside her father but left several inches between them.
Alvarez placed the responder report on the table.
Richard read Catherine’s quoted words.
Richard hit me.
He read them twice.
Then looked up.
“I wasn’t there.”
Thomas nodded.
“I know.”
Lily turned to him.
“Then why would Mom say his name?”
“That question kept me awake for nineteen years.”
“You said you only found this recently.”
“I found the report recently. But I knew something was wrong that night.”
“How?”
Thomas looked at Richard.
“Because Marcy called me after the crash.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“She said Catherine kept saying your name.”
“Why didn’t you tell police?”
“Because I was covering up financial crimes and had just left a dying woman on the side of the road.”
Thomas did not attempt to make himself sympathetic.
That almost made him harder to hate.
Lily looked at the report.
“Maybe Mom was asking for Dad.”
Alvarez nodded.
“Possible. Injured witnesses are often misheard.”
Thomas leaned forward.
“Except the report says she repeated it.”
Richard looked at him.
“What are you trying to say?”
“I’m trying to say Marcy has spent nineteen years believing Catherine exposed you, not her.”
Silence.
Thomas continued.
“That’s why she hated you.”
Lily frowned.
“If Martha caused the crash, why would she think Mom blamed Dad?”
“Because Marcy had convinced herself the crash was Richard’s fault before it ever happened.”
Richard laughed bitterly.
“How?”
Thomas looked uncomfortable.
“Catherine was planning to leave you.”
Everything stopped.
Lily turned toward Richard.
He didn’t move.
“You knew?” she asked.
“No.”
Thomas continued.
“Catherine told Marcy she was considering separation.”
Richard stared at him.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“Why?”
“Because of you.”
“What about me?”
“You were never home.”
Richard looked as if he had been struck.
Thomas spoke quietly.
“She loved you. That was obvious. But she was tired of being alone inside a marriage.”
Lily watched her father absorb the words.
Every late meeting.
Every missed dinner.
Every postponed conversation.
All returning at once.
Thomas continued.
“Marcy used that resentment. She told Catherine you were probably hiding money. Having affairs. Catherine didn’t believe the affair accusations, but she started examining finances.”
“And found your theft,” Lily said.
“Yes.”
“So Martha’s manipulation led Mom to uncover what Martha was doing.”
“Exactly.”
Lily almost laughed at the irony.
Thomas looked toward Catherine’s letter on the table.
“Marcy blamed Richard for everything. If he had been a better husband, Catherine wouldn’t have questioned the accounts. If Catherine hadn’t questioned the accounts, Marcy wouldn’t have been exposed.”
“That’s insane,” Lily said.
“Guilt often is.”
Richard stood and walked toward the window.
Lily watched him.
“Dad?”
“I need a minute.”
“No.”
He turned.
“You keep taking minutes alone whenever the truth hurts.”
That landed.
Richard returned to the table.
“Fine.”
Lily softened slightly.
“Did Mom ever tell you she wanted to leave?”
“No.”
“Did you know she was unhappy?”
Richard took too long to answer.
“Yes.”
Lily looked down.
“I knew she was lonely. I kept telling her the company was almost stable. One more year. One more deal.”
Thomas said nothing.
Richard looked at him.
“And you used my office to steal from her foundation.”
“Yes.”
“If police hadn’t been here this morning, I’d kill you.”
“I know.”
Alvarez intervened.
“Let’s stay focused.”
Lily returned to the report.
“If Mom said Dad’s name after the crash, maybe there was a reason other than blaming him.”
Thomas nodded slowly.
“That’s what I came to tell you.”
“What reason?”
“There was something in Catherine’s car.”
“A phone?”
“No.”
“A note?”
Thomas reached into the document envelope police had searched.
He removed an old photocopy.
A photograph from the accident scene.
Catherine’s destroyed vehicle.
The driver’s door crushed.
Windshield cracked.
On the passenger seat was a small handheld tape recorder.
Lily looked at it.
“The same kind from the safe.”
Thomas nodded.
“Catherine recorded things when she was afraid.”
Richard’s breathing changed.
“You think she recorded the chase.”
“Yes.”
“Where is the tape?”
Thomas looked at him.
“Missing.”
“Who took it?”
“I took her bag. Not the recorder.”
“Martha?”
“Marcy swears she didn’t.”
Lily studied the photograph.
Then noticed something near the wrecked car.
A shadow.
A person standing beyond the police tape.
She leaned closer.
“Who is that?”
Alvarez enlarged the image on her tablet.
A man.
Younger.
Dark suit.
Watching the wreckage.
Richard stared.
His face went blank.
Lily looked at him.
“You know him?”
Richard nodded slowly.
“That’s my driver from nineteen years ago.”
Lily waited.
Richard whispered his name.
“Samuel.”
Alvarez began searching records.
Richard sat very still.
May you like
Then he said something that made Lily’s stomach twist.
“Samuel disappeared the same week Thomas did.”
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