Chapter 10 - The Family Tablet
The tablet was almost missed.
It belonged to no one in particular.
Nora watched cartoons on it.
Daniel used it for recipes.
Vanessa sometimes carried it when managing decorations or shopping lists.
After the mansion was released from the initial police search, Elena found it beneath magazines in the breakfast room.
Daniel immediately called Monroe.
Digital forensics discovered that Vanessa’s messaging account had synced to the device.
Most recent messages had been deleted.
Backups had not.
The recovered conversation with Adrian stretched back six months.
Much of it concerned the legitimate property deal.
Then the tone changed.
Vanessa: Daniel won’t sell.
Adrian: He will if the trust issue changes.
Vanessa: Nora is the trust issue.
Adrian: Don’t put things like that in writing.
Three weeks later:
Vanessa: Rebecca wouldn’t tell me the death clause.
Adrian: I’ll get the document another way.
Then:
Adrian: Confirmed. If the kid dies before 25, property goes to Daniel.
Vanessa: Then he controls everything.
Adrian: Correct.
No murder plan followed.
That mattered.
Adrian could argue he was simply discussing estate contingencies.
But one later exchange was harder.
October 28.
Vanessa: Halloween is loud. Everyone’s distracted. Staff leave early.
Adrian: Vanessa.
Vanessa: What?
Adrian: I mean it. Whatever you’re thinking, stop.
Vanessa: You wanted the trust gone.
Adrian: LEGALLY.
Vanessa: Easy for you to say when you already took Northline money.
Daniel read the messages in Monroe’s office.
He felt physically ill.
“Adrian knew.”
“He suspected,” Monroe said.
“And did nothing.”
“That may have consequences.”
“Can you charge him?”
“Not for failing to predict exactly what she would do. But the financial fraud is separate.”
Daniel pointed at the screen.
“He knew she was talking about Nora.”
“Yes.”
“And Northline?”
“No evidence they knew about violence. Their compliance office is cooperating.”
Daniel hated the distinction.
But distinctions were what law was made of.
Outside the station, Rebecca waited.
She had another problem.
Someone had forged Daniel’s signature on a document requesting that the independent trustee consider a sale.
“Did the trustee approve?”
“No.”
“Thank God.”
“The forged document is probably why Northline believed the deal was further along.”
“Vanessa?”
“Metadata points to her laptop. But we need examination.”
Daniel rubbed his eyes.
Rebecca sat beside him.
“Are you sleeping?”
“No.”
“Eating?”
“Sometimes.”
“Nora needs a functioning father.”
“I know.”
“She also needs a father who understands he cannot personally prosecute everyone who failed her.”
Daniel looked at her.
“That includes Adrian?”
“Yes.”
“And Vanessa?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“You let the system do its job.”
Daniel laughed without humor.
“You sound like Monroe.”
“She sounds intelligent.”
Daniel finally smiled.
Briefly.
That evening Nora was building a blanket fort with Claire.
Daniel joined her.
For twenty minutes he crawled through tunnels and pretended Milo was a dragon.
Then Nora suddenly asked, “Our house bad?”
Daniel stopped.
“No.”
“Pool bad?”
He chose his answer carefully.
“The pool is a place where something bad happened.”
“Vanessa bad?”
Daniel did not want to teach a three-year-old that people could be reduced to one word.
“Vanessa did something very bad.”
Nora nodded.
“Milo good.”
“Yes.”
That classification was easier.
Later Daniel received a call from Monroe.
“The tablet gave us something else.”
“What?”
“A photo.”
Daniel’s pulse quickened.
“What photo?”
“Taken October twenty-ninth.”
Monroe sent it.
Daniel opened the image.
It showed the pool ladder.
Removed from its mounts.
Lying on the deck.
Beside it was a tape measure.
The photograph had been taken from Vanessa’s phone and automatically synced to the tablet.
Daniel enlarged it.
At the edge of the frame sat a yellow legal pad.
On it were handwritten numbers.
Fifty centimeters.
Thirty-one pounds.
Distance to shed: 126 feet.
Daniel stared.
Measurements.
Vanessa had measured the water drop.
The ladder weight.
The distance required to hide it.
The pool had not been a sudden decision.
May you like
It had been studied.
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