Chapter 8 - They Weren't Waiting for the Wedding
Richard read the petition until the words blurred.
"My mother signed this."
Anna stood beside him. "And Vanessa."
"They weren't waiting for anything," he said. "Not a wedding. Not an accident. They were already moving."
The detective took the documents into evidence.
Richard called the family court clerk himself.
The petition was real.
A sealed emergency hearing had been scheduled for nine the next morning.
Nathan Cross had filed it two days earlier.
"Can they do that without telling me?"
"In an emergency," Richard's new attorney said, "they can ask. The judge decides whether the emergency is real."
"They've built one."
A drugged child.
A nanny accused of abuse.
A father whose home security appeared compromised under his own account.
Photographs.
Medical records.
Witness statements.
It was not one lie.
It was architecture.
Anna suddenly understood why Vanessa wanted her gone.
She was not the target.
She was the obstacle.
Anna knew Leo's routines. She knew when he was healthy, when he had fallen, when he had been sick. She could contradict the story they were building.
"They needed me out before court," she said.
Richard looked at her.
"And if Leo had been seriously hurt on those stairs..."
Neither finished the sentence.
Tom entered carrying a small evidence bag.
"We found this in Margaret's guest suite."
Inside was the missing hardware security token.
Richard closed his eyes.
"Where is she?"
"Her driver says she went to the marina."
"Why?"
Tom placed a second item on the table.
A marina access card registered to Nathan Cross.
Police moved immediately.
By the time Richard and Anna reached the marina, Nathan's slip was empty.
His boat was gone.
Margaret's car sat in the parking lot.
The driver's seat was empty.
On the passenger seat was her handbag.
Her phone was inside.
So was a handwritten note.
RICHARD - DON'T BELIEVE VANESSA. SHE DIDN'T START THIS.
Anna read it twice.
"Your mother wrote this?"
"Yes."
"Then who did?"
A police officer called from the dock.
They had found security footage.
At 6:17 a.m., Margaret arrived alone.
At 6:23, Nathan's boat pulled in.
At 6:24, Margaret boarded.
At 6:26, Vanessa appeared from below deck.
Richard stared at the frozen image.
Vanessa had not been arrested after the staircase incident. Her lawyer had gotten her released while detectives reviewed the case.
Now she was on Nathan's boat.
With Margaret.
"They're together," Richard said.
Anna wasn't sure.
She pointed to the screen.
"Look at your mother's hand."
Margaret's wrist was held behind her back.
A man Anna had never seen was forcing her onto the boat.
Vanessa wasn't smiling.
She looked terrified.
Then the dock microphone captured four words from Nathan.
"Bring me the boy."
Richard turned toward Anna.
Leo was at the hotel.
With two security guards.
Tom's phone began ringing.
He answered.
His face went blank.
"Richard... the guards aren't responding."
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