Chapter 8 - THE CALL VICTOR ANSWERED
Victor Cole had been inside Ashbourne Manor the night Grace died.
Margaret remembered the dinner now.
Henry.
Victor.
Two bankers.
A late meeting.
She had gone upstairs with a migraine.
Victor claimed he left around nine.
Grace crashed at 9:18.
Phone records showed a call from Grace to the mansion at 9:02.
Duration.
Forty-three seconds.
Someone answered.
Rosa had been passing through the pantry.
She heard Victor’s voice in the study.
“You shouldn’t be driving with those files.”
At the time, Rosa thought nothing of it.
After Grace died, everyone was told the call had been routine.
Now Detective Bennett asked Victor about it.
He denied remembering.
Then investigators recovered old building logs.
Victor’s car did not leave the mansion until 9:31.
Thirteen minutes after Grace crashed.
His alibi changed.
He claimed he had been in Henry’s study.
Henry was dead and could not contradict him.
But the old security archive contained one exterior camera angle.
At 9:07, Victor walked toward the garage.
At 9:12, a dark sedan left the property.
At 9:29, it returned.
Grace crashed roughly six miles away.
The timeline was possible.
Not proof.
But possible.
Emily watched the footage.
The sedan’s license plate was unreadable.
Detective Bennett slowed the image.
One detail became visible.
A missing rear hubcap.
The crash report mentioned paint transfer on Grace’s car.
Dark blue.
The Ashbourne sedan had been dark blue.
Margaret covered her mouth.
“Henry sold that car after Grace died.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Records showed the buyer.
A company connected to Victor Cole.
The vehicle disappeared after that.
Bennett opened a suspicious-death investigation.
Vanessa’s framing attempt had opened a door nobody expected.
Victor responded aggressively.
His lawyers accused Ashbourne Holdings of manufacturing allegations to avoid the merger.
Financial media picked it up.
The company’s share valuation dropped.
Board members panicked.
Some demanded Daniel restore negotiations.
Then the trust administrator called.
Emily’s eighteenth-percent interest had a special clause.
If a material dispute threatened the company before vesting, Emily could request provisional voting rights.
She did.
Not because Daniel asked.
Because Victor’s board allies were trying to force the merger forward before the investigation ended.
The provisional vote hearing was scheduled for Monday.
Vanessa learned.
That evening, Emily returned to her small staff apartment behind the estate.
The door was open.
Nothing valuable was missing.
But every drawer had been emptied.
Mattress cut open.
Closet searched.
Her mother’s photographs scattered across the floor.
On the kitchen table sat one sentence.
YOU SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE BLAME FOR THE NECKLACE.
Emily did not touch anything.
She called Detective Bennett.
Then Daniel.
The intruder had made another mistake.
The staff corridor had new cameras installed after the necklace incident.
The footage showed a man entering Emily’s apartment.
May you like
Daniel recognized him immediately.
Victor Cole’s head of security.
