Chapter 3 - Someone Was Using Richard's Name
Richard changed every password before sunset.
It didn't make him feel safer.
Tom showed him the access log three times. At 2:11 p.m., Richard's administrator account had disabled the upstairs camera. At 2:18, the camera came back online. At 2:23, Leo fell.
Richard had been in a conference room across town during all of it.
"Could Vanessa know your password?" Anna asked.
"Not this one."
Tom looked uncomfortable.
"There are only three people with recovery access. You, me, and the estate attorney."
"Nathan?"
Tom nodded.
Nathan Cross had handled Richard's family's legal affairs for almost twenty years. He had drafted Richard and Julia's wills. He had arranged the trust that protected Leo's inheritance. He had stood beside Richard at Julia's funeral.
Richard immediately called him.
Nathan answered on the second ring.
"Richard? What's wrong?"
"Did you access my security system today?"
A pause.
"Your what?"
"My security system."
"No. Why would I?"
Richard watched Tom while he listened.
"Send me your laptop and phone."
Another pause.
"You're making me nervous."
"Good. Send them."
Richard hung up.
Across the room, Vanessa was being escorted toward the front door. The officers had not arrested her. The footage showed reckless conduct and possible assault, but her lawyer had already begun arguing that the fall was accidental.
She stopped beside Anna.
"You think you won something."
Anna held Leo tighter.
"You hurt a child."
Vanessa's eyes moved to the brass key in Richard's hand.
"You have no idea what Julia left behind."
Richard stepped between them.
"Try me."
Vanessa smiled.
"Go to the storage unit."
Then she left.
That should have sounded like a threat.
Instead, it sounded like she wanted them to go.
Anna said so.
Richard looked at the key.
"Then we don't go alone."
Tom arranged two security men and they drove to a storage facility thirty minutes north of the estate. Unit 314 was registered under a name Richard did not recognize: Helen Ward.
The brass key opened it.
Inside were three banker boxes, a locked metal case, and a child's blue raincoat hanging from a nail.
Richard touched the raincoat.
"Julia bought this for Leo."
"He was six months old," Anna said.
"She said he'd grow into it."
His voice broke on the last word.
Anna gave him space.
The first banker box contained copies of bank statements.
The second held printouts of home security logs.
The third held medical reports.
Richard frowned.
"These are Julia's."
Anna picked up one page.
A toxicology screen.
A sedative had been detected in Julia's blood six weeks before her fatal car crash.
"Did she take this medication?"
"No."
They opened the metal case.
Inside was an old phone.
Dead battery.
Tom found a charging cable in the office.
When the phone powered on, there were no contacts and only one saved voicemail.
Date: the night Julia died.
Richard pressed play.
Julia's voice came through the tiny speaker, breathless and frightened.
"If you're hearing this, I didn't make it home. Someone has been using the cameras to watch me. Someone inside the house."
Richard gripped the table.
The recording continued.
"I found out who."
Static swallowed the next few words.
Then Julia said a name.
Not Vanessa.
Not Nathan.
"Margaret."
Richard's face went white.
Anna knew the name.
Everyone in the family did.
Margaret Bennett was Richard's mother.
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