Chapter 7 - THE LAST PERSON ANNA CALLED
Anna’s phone was badly damaged in the crash.
Investigators recovered only partial data at the time.
The device had remained in police storage.
New forensic software retrieved several deleted records.
At 7:03 p.m. on the night she died, Anna called Evelyn.
The call lasted eleven minutes.
At 7:16, she called Michael.
The call lasted less than thirty seconds.
At 7:22, she called me.
I did not answer.
I had been giving Lily a bath.
Anna left no voicemail.
At 8:01, she called an attorney named Claire Donovan.
That conversation lasted forty-three minutes.
Claire had moved to Oregon after retiring.
Detective Collins contacted her.
She agreed to speak with us by video.
Claire remembered Anna clearly.
“Your wife was terrified.”
“What did she tell you?”
“She believed someone had accessed Lily’s trust.”
“She also believed Evelyn wanted control of the money.”
Claire had prepared the amendment.
It removed all Hart family members except me from future guardianship.
If I died or became incapacitated, Lily would live with Anna’s college friend, Rebecca Moore.
The trust would be controlled by a professional fiduciary.
Michael and Evelyn would receive nothing.
Anna signed the documents inside Claire’s office.
Then she made a mistake.
She called Evelyn.
“She wanted to confront her,” Claire said.
“I told her to wait.”
“What did Evelyn say?”
“Anna put the call on speaker for part of the conversation.”
Claire had heard Evelyn deny everything.
Then Evelyn asked whether the amendment had already been signed.
Anna said yes.
Evelyn became quiet.
After the call, Anna told Claire she planned to stop at Michael’s apartment.
She wanted to ask why his computer had accessed the trust.
Michael’s old apartment was twenty minutes from the road where Anna crashed.
The thirty-second call likely occurred when she reached his building.
Claire looked directly at me.
“Daniel, Anna told me something before she left.”
“What?”
“She said if Evelyn and Michael had stolen from Lily, she would go to the police that night.”
Anna never reached the station.
Detective Collins obtained building security footage from an archived cloud account.
The images were grainy.
At 7:41 p.m., Anna entered Michael’s apartment building.
At 8:36, she left.
Michael followed her carrying a black backpack.
He entered his car two minutes later.
Traffic cameras captured both vehicles heading toward the highway.
Anna drove first.
Michael followed.
At 9:12, Evelyn’s car joined the same road from another entrance.
Three vehicles traveled toward the mountain pass.
Only two returned.
Michael’s car came back at 11:03.
Evelyn’s returned at 11:18.
Anna was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:27.
The old accident investigation had never examined the other vehicles.
There had been no reason.
Evelyn told police she spent the evening at home.
Michael claimed he was at a movie.
Both had alibis supported by each other.
The new evidence destroyed them.
Collins reopened the death investigation formally.
Anna’s car had been destroyed.
But the towing company retained photographs.
One image showed a dark stain near the brake assembly.
A mechanical expert examined it.
The brake line had been cut.
The cut was clean.
Deliberate.
Anna had driven more than an hour before enough fluid escaped to cause failure.
Michael could have damaged the line while she was inside his apartment.
Then he followed her to ensure the plan worked.
I looked away from the photograph.
“I let him live with Lily.”
Collins did not offer empty comfort.
“You did.”
I closed my eyes.
“And now you know what he is.”
A notification appeared on her phone.
The charter plane used by Michael and Dr. Reeves had landed at a private airport in Wyoming.
By the time local police reached the hangar, the passengers were gone.
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Inside the plane, they found blood on the rear seat.
And Dr. Reeves’s wallet.
