Chapter 11 - The Story They Prepared
The anonymous packet was thirty-eight pages long.
Adrian read it at midnight.
He shouldn't have.
Miriam told him not to.
Camille told him to sleep.
Nolan told him the metadata was being analyzed.
He read it anyway.
It was designed to make him look unstable before instability occurred.
There were old photographs of Adrian arguing with photographers outside a hospital after Simone's death.
A video clip of him shouting at a supplier during a labor dispute.
Anonymous quotes claiming he had "anger issues."
A heavily edited email in which he had written, I will burn the deal before I hand it to Hale.
The original context had been about refusing a predatory acquisition.
In the packet, it looked unhinged.
Then came the section about Lila.
Founder increasingly distracted by single-parent responsibilities.
Adrian stopped reading.
He went back.
Single-parent.
The packet had been assembled before the yacht incident.
Before Corinne could plausibly be removed from his life.
Yet it already described him as a single parent.
He called Nolan.
"You awake?"
"Unfortunately."
"Page twenty-three."
"I've seen it."
"It calls me a single parent."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because whoever wrote it anticipated Corinne wouldn't remain in the picture."
Adrian stood.
"That means—"
"It means someone predicted a separation, scandal, death, arrest or other event. Don't pick one without evidence."
Adrian hated Nolan's precision almost as much as he needed it.
"Metadata?"
"PDF was generated by a contractor used by Tessa's PR agency."
Adrian closed his eyes.
"So Tessa prepared my collapse."
"Looks that way."
"Before Lila went overboard."
"Yes."
The next morning, Detective Ruiz invited Adrian to the station.
She was not smiling.
"Brooke gave us more."
Adrian sat.
"What?"
"She says there were rehearsals."
He stared at her.
"What does that mean?"
"Not for the push."
"Then for what?"
"The narrative afterward."
Ruiz opened her notebook.
"According to Brooke, Tessa coached them on phrases to use if something went wrong."
Adrian said nothing.
"'She was too close to the edge.' 'It happened so fast.' 'Corinne tried to reach her.'"
His stomach turned.
Ruiz continued.
"Those phrases appeared almost verbatim in the initial interviews."
"Sloane said Lila was running."
"Yes."
"Tessa said she backed up."
"Yes."
"They couldn't even stick to the script."
Ruiz gave him a grim look.
"People are worse liars under stress than they imagine."
"And Brooke?"
"Brooke says she didn't know Corinne intended actual physical harm."
"Do you believe her?"
"My beliefs don't go in reports."
"Everyone around me has decided that sentence is mandatory."
Ruiz almost smiled.
Then didn't.
"There's another piece."
She slid a photograph across the desk.
It showed four women at a private dining room.
Corinne.
Sloane.
Tessa.
Brooke.
On a whiteboard behind them were three words.
EVENT
CRISIS
EXIT
Adrian looked up.
"What's that?"
"Brooke says it was a planning dinner."
"For the yacht?"
"For you."
His mouth went dry.
Ruiz continued.
"Event was the yacht. Crisis was whatever happened there. Exit was your removal from company control."
"Who took the photo?"
"A server. He thought the whiteboard was strange."
"Why do you have it?"
"Brooke remembered the restaurant. We subpoenaed records. The server had backed up photos to cloud storage."
Adrian stared again.
"Where was Hale?"
"Not present."
"Convenient."
"We have no evidence he attended."
"Doesn't mean he didn't know."
"No."
Ruiz leaned closer.
"But I need you to understand something. The financial conspiracy and what happened to Lila may not be one criminal agreement. Corinne could have escalated beyond what the others expected."
"Brooke said they thought she'd scare Lila."
"Yes."
"Do you believe that?"
"Brooke has incentives to minimize her involvement."
Adrian looked away.
"At least you're willing to say that."
Ruiz closed the file.
"As of this morning, Sloane's lawyer says she wants to talk."
"Everybody wants to talk when the first person talks."
"Usually."
"What does she want?"
"A deal."
Adrian's jaw clenched.
"And if she gives you Corinne?"
Ruiz held his gaze.
"Then we listen."
He stood.
At the door, Ruiz said, "Mr. Cole."
He turned.
"Don't make the mistake of thinking the person who talks first is the good person."
Adrian thought about Brooke.
About her silence on the bow.
About Sloane's laughter.
About Tessa's rehearsed phrases.
"I don't."
Ruiz nodded.
"Good."
Then she added, "Because Sloane says Corinne didn't invent the plan."
Adrian froze.
Ruiz closed the folder.
May you like
"She says Victor Hale did."
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