Chapter 16 - THE EARLY RECORDING
The memory card contained nineteen days of motion-activated footage.
Most of it was useless.
Empty kitchen.
Morning coffee.
Groceries.
Arthur wandering in at night.
Then investigators found the conversation.
Three nights before the burner.
Victoria stood beside the island.
Dominic paced across the kitchen.
“She won’t sign.”
Victoria poured wine.
“Then stop asking.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means fear works faster than persuasion.”
Dominic stopped.
“You want me to hurt her?”
Victoria looked toward him.
“I want you to remind your wife that resistance has consequences.”
The room watching the footage went silent.
Dominic rubbed his face.
“She’s already suspicious.”
“Then make her emotional.”
“What if she calls police?”
“She never does.”
Victoria smiled.
“She still believes marriage means protecting you.”
Then Arthur entered.
He had been listening from the hallway.
“No.”
Victoria turned.
Arthur stepped into the kitchen.
“This ends now.”
Dominic laughed.
“You suddenly grew a spine?”
Arthur ignored him.
He looked at Victoria.
“I copied everything.”
Victoria’s expression changed.
“What?”
“The accounts.”
“The files.”
“The recordings.”
“If Claire gets hurt again, I give them to police.”
That explained Arthur’s voicemail.
It explained the bank vault.
Then Victoria stepped close to him.
“You won’t.”
“Try me.”
She smiled.
“You spent thirty-six years helping me.”
“No jury will see you as a hero because you became ashamed at the end.”
Arthur looked broken.
But he didn’t back down.
Then came the sentence that solved another mystery.
“The originals are in the old Riverside property.”
Victoria went still.
The recording ended minutes later.
Chloe immediately searched property records.
Bennett Strategic Holdings owned an abandoned commercial building near the Stamford waterfront.
Riverside Packaging.
Closed six years earlier.
Police secured a warrant.
Before they reached it, smoke appeared above the building.
Someone had set it on fire.
Firefighters entered while police blocked the roads.
Chloe called me from the scene.
“Claire, somebody is inside.”
“Victoria?”
“We don’t know.”
Thirty minutes later, firefighters brought out a man.
Arthur.
Alive.
Barely conscious.
He had returned for the original files.
But he wasn’t alone.
A firefighter found a second vehicle behind the warehouse.
Registered to Victoria.
The driver’s door was open.
Blood marked the steering wheel.
May you like
Victoria Bennett had been there.
And she was still missing.
