PART 4
I looked at Detective Reyes.
“They didn’t call 911.”
Arthur’s tablet spoke again.
“Teresa called Mr. Vance’s assistant.”
My mother began crying in the hallway.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” she said. “He told me Clara was having a panic episode. He said calling the police would destroy Alex’s career and put all of us at risk.”
“You believed him?” I asked.
“He knew things about your assignment. He knew your route, your return date, your supervisor’s name. He said Clara had stolen company property and that you could be blamed for it.”
Detective Reyes turned toward her.
“How long did you wait before getting medical help?”
Teresa covered her face.
“I don’t know. Maybe eighteen minutes. Maybe more.”
The medical examiner later concluded that Clara had suffered a serious cardiac event and that emergency assistance had been delayed. Because Clara had a documented heart-rhythm condition, the report could not state with certainty what caused the event. But it did establish that she had been conscious and responsive when the family first realized she was in distress.
That fact stayed with me more than anything else.
She had been calling my name.
She had been asking for help.
And everyone around her had been listening to someone else.
The flash drive contained a folder with sixty-two scanned pages. Clara had organized everything by date, amount, and person involved.
The first invoice was from January.
The last was dated the day before I left for my assignment.
Cedar Peak Consulting had no actual office. Its listed address was a mailbox in a strip mall in another state. The company had received more than $1.2 million from Northstar over fourteen months.
The invoices carried my employee number because they were filed under “special route verification,” a task I had performed many times. But my signature had been copied. The route records had been altered after I completed each delivery.
Someone had been using my work history to make the payments look legitimate.
Clara had found the original records through a former coworker. She had also discovered that Cedar Peak’s registered owner was the brother-in-law of Warren Vance.
The final file was an audio recording.
Detective Reyes played it through her department laptop.
Clara’s voice came first, quiet but steady.
“I’m not giving you the drive, Derek. You don’t work for Northstar, and you don’t have the right to take it.”
Derek answered, his voice trembling.
“You don’t understand what Vance can do.”
“Then tell him to speak to me himself.”
“He said Alex’s entire career is tied to those files.”
“That’s why I’m keeping them safe.”
There was the sound of a door opening. Then Teresa’s voice.
“Clara, please. Give us the folder and we can all move on.”
“Why are you helping him?” Clara asked.
No one answered for several seconds.
Then Derek said, “Because he promised to pay for Dad’s care.”
The recording ended.
