Chapter 2 - THE RECORDING Victoria never reached the phone.
Officer Marcus Reed intercepted her as she climbed from the pool, while his partner moved between her and the Bennett family.
“Ma’am, stop.”
“Give me that phone!”
“Step back.”
“It belongs to me!”
Elena stood.
“No, it doesn’t.”
Victoria stared at her.
Water streamed from her hair and soaked red dress.
“You have no idea what you recorded.”
Elena’s heart accelerated.
Daniel heard it.
“So there is something.”
Victoria immediately realized her mistake.
“I didn’t mean that.”
Daniel picked up the phone.
Victoria lunged.
Officer Reed caught her arm.
“Ma’am!”
“DON’T PLAY IT!”
Silence.
Daniel looked at her.
“Why?”
Victoria stopped struggling.
Her eyes moved toward Lily.
Then Elena.
Then Daniel.
“Because you won’t understand.”
Daniel pressed play.
The recording began with Lily laughing.
Bubbles floated across the screen.
Music played.
Guests talked.
Then a male voice appeared faintly in the background.
Victoria’s voice followed.
Elena hadn’t heard this conversation at the time.
The phone had.
“Not tonight,” Victoria whispered.
The man answered.
“You don’t choose the schedule.”
“I said I need more time.”
“You’ve had eight months.”
“I’m marrying him in six weeks.”
“Then get the signature before the wedding.”
Daniel stopped the recording.
“What signature?”
Victoria said nothing.
Daniel continued.
The man’s voice returned.
“Once Bennett signs the revised trust, the girl’s shares move under your control.”
Daniel’s blood turned cold.
Lily owned forty-one percent of Bennett Aerospace through a trust created by Caroline.
Victoria knew that.
Everyone close to the family knew it.
But only Daniel and the company’s attorneys knew the trust could not be altered without his signature.
On the recording Victoria whispered:
“And if he refuses?”
The unknown man answered.
“Then we use the contingency.”
“What contingency?”
“The same one we used on Caroline.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Elena covered her mouth.
Victoria closed her eyes.
Daniel replayed the sentence.
The same one we used on Caroline.
His wife had died in a car crash eighteen months earlier.
Police found no evidence of another vehicle.
The brakes had failed.
The manufacturer blamed maintenance.
Daniel had accepted it because grief left him with no strength to fight reality.
Now reality had changed.
He looked at Victoria.
“Who was that man?”
She shook her head.
Daniel stepped closer.
“WHO?”
Victoria began crying.
“You don’t understand.”
“My wife.”
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“What did you do to my wife?”
“I didn’t kill Caroline.”
“But you know who did.”
Victoria looked away.
Daniel understood.
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His engagement party had just become a crime scene.
And his daughter’s babysitter had accidentally recorded the first evidence suggesting Caroline Bennett’s death was not an accident.
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