Chapter 4 - The Crash Was No Accident
The homicide detective’s name was Naomi Reyes.
She didn’t wear a dramatic black coat.
She didn’t speak like someone in a television show.
She sat across from Sarah in a plain interview room at 11:42 that night and placed a photograph on the table.
A black Mercedes rested against a concrete barrier.
The front end was crushed.
Sarah immediately looked away.
“I haven’t seen that car since the funeral.”
“I’m sorry.”
Detective Reyes slid another photograph forward.
“This is the brake assembly.”
Sarah forced herself to look.
“What am I seeing?”
“A cut.”
Sarah stared at her.
“What?”
“A clean cut in the rear brake line.”
“No.”
“The original report called it crash damage.”
Sarah shook her head.
“No.”
“A retired mechanic contacted us this afternoon. He reviewed photographs from the evidence archive.”
Sarah stood.
“No.”
“Mrs. Mitchell.”
“They told me Ethan was speeding.”
“I know.”
“They told me he had alcohol in his blood.”
“The level was below the legal limit.”
“They told everyone I distracted him because I called him!”
Reyes waited.
Sarah’s voice broke.
“I spent seven years thinking my phone call might have killed my husband.”
“No.”
Reyes said it firmly.
“It didn’t.”
Sarah sat down again.
For several seconds she couldn’t speak.
Then she whispered,
“Who cut the line?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Julian had been waiting outside.
Sarah could see him through the narrow glass window.
Detective Reyes followed her gaze.
“Mr. Vance gave us financial records tonight.”
“What records?”
“A payment made four days before Ethan died.”
“To who?”
“A mechanic named Raymond Cole.”
Sarah frowned.
“I don’t know him.”
“Neither did Ethan, as far as we can tell.”
Reyes pushed a bank record across the table.
The payment came from Mercer Consulting.
Sarah recognized the name immediately.
“Charles Mercer.”
“You know him?”
“He worked for Victoria.”
“He still does.”
Sarah leaned back.
Charles had always been around the Sterling house.
Never quite security.
Never quite an assistant.
The man who handled things nobody discussed.
Reyes lowered her voice.
“Mercer Consulting received eighty thousand dollars from a Sterling family account two days before it paid Cole.”
Sarah’s stomach twisted.
“Victoria paid him?”
“We don’t have that link yet.”
“But you think it.”
“I think money leaves footprints.”
The door opened.
Julian stepped in without waiting for permission.
“We found Cole.”
Reyes stood.
“Where?”
“Motel off Route 6.”
“You were told not to conduct your own investigation.”
“He called my office.”
Sarah stared at him.
“What did he say?”
“He said he knows what happened to Ethan’s car.”
Reyes reached for her phone.
“Give me the number.”
Julian did.
Sarah stepped closer.
“Is he coming here?”
“No.”
Julian looked directly at her.
“He said he’ll speak only to you.”
“Why me?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
Julian dialed.
The phone rang twice.
A man answered.
“Sarah?”
Her throat tightened.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I didn’t know they were going to kill him.”
Reyes immediately began recording.
Sarah gripped the phone.
“Who?”
“I only disabled the warning sensor.”
“What warning sensor?”
“They wanted Ethan scared. Stranded. That’s what Mercer told me.”
“Who cut the brake line?”
Silence.
“Raymond?”
“He came back.”
“Who?”
“The other man.”
A loud bang came through the phone.
Then Raymond shouted.
The line filled with crashing sounds.
Sarah heard glass break.
Detective Reyes grabbed her coat.
“Address.”
Julian was already moving.
Then one final sound came through the speaker.
A man’s voice.
Low.
Close to Raymond’s phone.
“Should’ve kept your mouth shut.”
May you like
The call ended.
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