Chapter 13 - REBECCA’S CONFESSION
Rebecca sat inside a police interview room at Blackridge Farm.
Mara placed the audio recorder between them.
“You were at the marina.”
Rebecca stared at the table.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Richard called me.”
“You knew Richard before Claire married him.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“About two years.”
“Did Claire know?”
“No.”
“Why were you meeting him?”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“We were having an affair.”
Mara stared.
Rebecca’s voice cracked.
“I was married.”
“He was not.”
“This was before he met Claire.”
“How long did the affair last?”
“Six months.”
“What ended it?”
“Tom found out.”
“Your husband.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Richard threatened him.”
“With what?”
“Richard had evidence Tom had taken money from his company.”
“Had he?”
“No.”
“So it was fabricated.”
“Yes.”
Mara wrote it down.
“Why were you at the marina?”
“Richard asked me to convince Nathan to speak with him.”
“Why you?”
“Nathan trusted me.”
“You were Claire’s sister.”
“Yes.”
“Nathan thought you were helping reconcile them.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Rebecca began crying.
“Richard and Nathan argued.”
“About the key?”
“Yes.”
“Did Richard attack him?”
“He pushed him.”
“Anything else?”
“No.”
“Did he sabotage the boat?”
“I didn’t see him.”
“Did Jonathan Vale?”
“I never saw Vale.”
“Then why did the boat explode?”
Rebecca wiped her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
“Did you leave before Nathan?”
“Yes.”
“With Richard?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Nathan would die?”
“No.”
Mara studied her.
“Then why keep silent afterward?”
“Because Richard called me two hours after the explosion.”
“What did he say?”
“He said if I told anyone he had been there, police would learn about our affair.”
“That doesn’t sound worth hiding murder evidence.”
“It wasn’t only the affair.”
“What else?”
Rebecca looked sick.
“Richard had videos.”
“What kind?”
“Of me.”
Mara understood.
“He blackmailed you.”
“For years.”
“And later you let him marry Claire.”
“I begged Claire not to.”
“Did you tell her why?”
“No.”
“Then you didn’t beg hard enough.”
Rebecca looked at her with fury.
“You think I don’t know that?”
Mara leaned back.
“Tell me about Tom.”
Rebecca’s face collapsed again.
“He discovered Richard was meeting Vale.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
“What did he do?”
“He started recording them.”
“Where are the recordings?”
“I don’t know.”
“Richard killed him?”
“I think so.”
“How did Tom die?”
“He collapsed at dinner.”
“Poison?”
“Officially heart failure.”
“Was Malcolm his doctor?”
Rebecca nodded.
Mara swore softly.
Another engineered death.
Another certificate.
Another family told to grieve.
“Why help Richard move Claire’s coffin?”
“He sent me a video of Ethan leaving school.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“After Claire escaped?”
“Yes.”
“He said someone had eyes on Ethan.”
“He ordered me to go to the funeral home.”
“Did you know about the key?”
“No.”
“Did you know about the metal case?”
“I saw Richard place it inside before the funeral.”
“What was inside?”
“He said insurance.”
“Against what?”
“He didn’t say.”
Mara placed a photograph of Senator Vale on the table.
“Why were you in a car with him three months ago?”
Rebecca stared at it.
“I was trying to make a deal.”
“For what?”
“My freedom.”
“From Richard?”
“Yes.”
“What did Vale say?”
“He laughed.”
“Then?”
“He told me Richard did nothing without permission.”
Mara leaned closer.
“Did he admit ordering crimes?”
“Not directly.”
“What exactly did he say?”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“He said, ‘Richard has always been useful when inconvenient people need to stop being inconvenient.’”
Mara wrote the quote.
“Anything else?”
“He told me if I wanted protection, I needed leverage.”
“What leverage?”
“Something Richard feared.”
“The key?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“At the time I didn’t know about the key.”
“So what did you find?”
Rebecca hesitated.
Mara waited.
Finally Rebecca whispered.
“A boy.”
Mara frowned.
“What boy?”
“Richard has a son.”
The detective stared.
“With whom?”
“I don’t know.”
“How old?”
“Sixteen.”
“Name?”
“Caleb.”
“Last name?”
“Hale.”
Mara immediately searched.
No Caleb Hale matching the age.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“How did you learn about him?”
“I followed Richard.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
“He visited a private school outside Albany.”
“Did you see the boy?”
“Yes.”
“Did Richard speak to him?”
“No.”
“He watched him from across a sports field.”
“Why would Richard hide his own son?”
Rebecca looked toward the one-way glass.
“I think the boy’s mother is someone Vale made disappear.”
Mara felt another piece click into place.
“Evelyn?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Description?”
“Richard keeps an old photo in his office safe.”
“Woman with red hair.”
“Maybe thirty.”
“Anything written on it?”
Rebecca nodded.
“Sarah.”
Mara sent the information to analysts.
Minutes later a possible match returned.
Sarah Ellison.
Former investigative aide to Senator Jonathan Vale.
Missing seventeen years.
No body.
Mara stared at the screen.
Sarah disappeared one year after Richard began working with Vale.
Then Mara noticed something else.
Sarah had a newborn son at the time she vanished.
Child listed as missing with mother.
Name: Caleb Ellison.
Mara looked at Rebecca.
“You were right.”
Rebecca began crying again.
“If Caleb is alive, Richard knows Vale can reach him.”
Mara understood.
Richard might not be loyal to Vale.
He might be trapped by him.
That did not excuse murder.
It did explain fear.
Mara called the temporary command center.
“Find Caleb Ellison.”
“Priority one.”
Then another officer approached.
“We found something in the coffin.”
Mara stood.
“The key?”
“No.”
“The metal case.”
“Bomb?”
“Not explosive.”
“What is it?”
The officer handed her a photograph.
Inside the metal case were dozens of small glass vials.
Each had a number.
No labels.
Mara looked at Rebecca.
“Do you know what these are?”
Rebecca shook her head.
Mara called Malcolm.
The doctor answered.
She sent him the image.
His silence lasted too long.
“Malcolm.”
“Where did you find those?”
“In Claire’s coffin.”
Malcolm cursed.
“What are they?”
“Samples.”
“Of what?”
“Compounds.”
“What compounds?”
“Drugs.”
Mara’s stomach tightened.
“What kind?”
“Untraceable ones.”
Rebecca stared.
Malcolm continued.
“I developed them.”
Mara closed her eyes.
Of course he had.
“For Vale?”
“Yes.”
“What do they do?”
“Some cause cardiac arrest.”
“Some cause stroke.”
“Some cause respiratory failure.”
“All can mimic natural causes if the dosage is correct.”
Mara looked at the vials.
“How many deaths?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“I don’t.”
“Why did Richard put them under Claire?”
Malcolm’s voice became quiet.
“Because if her coffin had been buried, the evidence would disappear with her.”
Mara realized it.
Richard had used Claire’s burial to destroy proof of other murders.
The funeral was not only about killing Claire.
It was about burying an entire archive of homicide evidence.
Then one technician called from the coffin.
“Detective.”
Mara walked over.
“What?”
“We found the key.”
A small silver key lay inside an evidence tray.
Mara almost smiled.
Then the technician added something.
“There’s engraving on it.”
Mara leaned closer.
Two letters.
E.P.
Ethan Parker.
Beneath them was a six-digit number.
Ethan’s birthday.
Mara contacted Claire.
“We have the key.”
Claire exhaled.
“Thank God.”
“Ethan’s initials are engraved on it.”
“That makes sense.”
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“A number.”
Claire heard it.
Then Ethan spoke from beside her.
“That isn’t my birthday.”
Mara frowned.
“It matches your birth date.”
“No.”
“What do you mean?”
Ethan thought.
“Dad used to tell me I had two birthdays.”
Claire stared at him.
“What?”
“The day I was born.”
“And another day.”
“What other day?”
“The day he said I saved his life.”
Claire went pale.
“When was that?”
Ethan gave another date.
Mara entered it into the database.
A Parker Meridian account appeared.
The same date had been used as a security code on a sealed corporate archive.
Mara stared at the screen.
The archive had not been accessed in seven years.
Until three hours ago.
Someone had entered the correct code.
And the access location belonged to Senator Jonathan Vale’s private office.
Vale had found the second half of Nathan’s encryption.
Mara whispered.
“He doesn’t need Ethan anymore.”
Claire should have felt relief.
Instead she felt terror.
May you like
Because if Ethan was no longer useful, there was nothing stopping Vale from ordering his name changed from transfer to completed.
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