Chapter 17 - Samuel's Real Role
Police found Samuel before sunrise.
He hadn't fled the state.
He was sitting in his car outside a cemetery.
Ryan's father's grave was fifty yards away.
Samuel surrendered without resistance.
His explanation changed everything.
He admitted buying the prepaid phone.
But he claimed the messages weren't his.
“Diane asked me to buy it.”
“Why?” Ryan demanded.
Samuel sat across from him in the interview room.
“She said your father was monitoring her accounts.”
“You helped her hide communications?”
“Yes.”
“And then you came to me pretending you were innocent?”
Samuel lowered his head.
“I was never innocent.”
Ryan's hands tightened.
Samuel continued.
“I discovered the theft years earlier than I told you.”
“Why didn't you stop it?”
“Because she paid me.”
Ryan looked away in disgust.
Samuel had helped hide transfers.
He had adjusted books.
He had created accounting entries.
Then Ryan's father discovered both of them.
That was when Samuel panicked.
“I wanted to confess.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Your mother threatened me.”
Ryan laughed bitterly.
“Everyone says that.”
Samuel looked directly at him.
“She had documents showing I participated.”
“You did participate.”
“Yes.”
For once, Samuel didn't hide from it.
“But I never hurt your father.”
Ryan leaned forward.
“What happened the night before he died?”
Samuel swallowed.
“Your mother called me.”
“What did she say?”
“That he was going to expose everything.”
“And?”
“She asked me whether there was any way to make the audit disappear.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That files could disappear.”
Ryan stared at him.
“Did she ask you to hurt him?”
“No.”
“Did you tell her to?”
“No.”
Samuel shook his head.
“I swear.”
Then he revealed the reason he had helped us.
Ryan's father had secretly recorded a meeting.
Samuel possessed a copy.
He had been too afraid to release it.
“Where is it?”
“In a safe deposit box.”
Police recovered it that afternoon.
The recording was dated three days before the death.
Ryan's father's voice came first.
Diane, I'm done protecting you.
Then Diane.
You expose me, you destroy Ryan too.
His father answered.
No.
I save him.
Diane's voice became cold.
You won't get the chance.
The room went silent.
Then Ryan's father said something none of us expected.
I already mailed him everything.
The recording ended.
Ryan looked at Detective Ramirez.
“He mailed me something?”
Ramirez nodded slowly.
“The question is whether it ever reached you.”
Ryan already knew who had controlled the family mail after his father died.
May you like
Diane.
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