Chapter 3 - The Missing Seven Seconds
Lucas clicked the video again.
Nothing changed.
Rachel's warning ended in the same place.
“Do not trust—”
Black screen.
Lucas slammed his hand against the desk.
“No.”
He replayed it.
Again.
Again.
The same result.
Seven seconds were missing.
The file had been altered.
“Who touched this card?”
Lucas demanded.
Margaret shook her head.
“No one.”
“You had it for four years.”
“I kept the button in my safe.”
“Who knew?”
“Rachel.”
“Who else?”
Margaret hesitated.
Lucas saw it.
“Mom.”
“Your brother.”
Lucas stared at her.
“Daniel?”
Margaret nodded.
Lucas stepped back.
Daniel Bennett.
His older brother.
Best man at the wedding.
And suddenly Lucas realized something.
“Where is he?”
Nobody answered.
Lucas looked around the room.
Daniel had been at the hotel that morning.
Lucas had spoken to him at breakfast.
Daniel had joked about Lucas getting cold feet.
He had promised to keep Sophie entertained during photographs.
But Lucas hadn't seen him since.
“Call him.”
Margaret pulled out her phone.
Straight to voicemail.
Lucas called.
Voicemail.
Again.
Voicemail.
Vanessa whispered from the corner.
“He knows.”
Lucas turned.
“What does Daniel know?”
She immediately regretted speaking.
Richard glared at her.
Lucas walked toward her.
“What does my brother know?”
Vanessa looked at her father.
Then at Lucas.
“He knows why Rachel was killed.”
Lucas felt the room disappear around him.
“Killed?”
Vanessa's face crumpled.
“I didn't mean—”
“You said killed.”
Richard stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Lucas spun toward him.
“No.”
His voice shook.
“You don't get to decide when this conversation ends.”
He pointed toward the laptop.
“My wife recorded that because she believed she was going to die.”
He pointed toward Sophie.
“My daughter was locked in a bathroom today because someone wanted what Rachel left her.”
Then he pointed at Vanessa.
“And your daughter just told me my wife was killed.”
Lucas moved closer.
“So nobody leaves until I know why.”
A police detective entered the room.
Detective Marcus Hale.
Lucas recognized him immediately.
Hale had investigated Rachel's crash.
Lucas stared at him.
“You.”
Hale looked uncomfortable.
“Mr. Bennett.”
“You handled Rachel's accident.”
“Yes.”
“Why are you here?”
“We received a call about an assault and attempted theft.”
Lucas looked at Richard.
Richard looked away.
Something clicked.
“Hale.”
The detective met his eyes.
“Did you know Richard Cole four years ago?”
Silence.
Too much silence.
Lucas walked closer.
“Did you?”
Hale exhaled.
“Yes.”
Lucas's chest tightened.
“How?”
“We had mutual acquaintances.”
“That's not an answer.”
Hale's eyes dropped.
Lucas understood.
“You buried something.”
Hale didn't respond.
“You found something at Rachel's crash.”
Still nothing.
Lucas stepped closer.
“What did you find?”
Hale finally spoke.
“A second vehicle.”
Margaret gasped.
Lucas stared.
“What?”
“Traffic cameras recorded another vehicle following Rachel.”
“Whose?”
Hale looked toward Richard.
Lucas felt rage rise inside him.
“Whose car?”
Hale whispered.
“Daniel's.”
Lucas stopped moving.
His brother's car had followed Rachel on the night she died.
And Daniel had never told him.
Lucas immediately dialed again.
This time someone answered.
No voice.
Just breathing.
“Daniel?”
Silence.
“Daniel, where are you?”
A whisper finally came.
“Lucas.”
It was his brother.
“Listen carefully.”
“Where are you?”
“You need to take Sophie and leave the hotel.”
“Why?”
“Because Richard isn't the one you should be afraid of.”
Lucas looked at Rachel's frozen image on the laptop.
“Then who is?”
Daniel breathed heavily.
“I tried to warn Rachel.”
Lucas gripped the phone.
“About what?”
“About Mom.”
Lucas looked toward Margaret.
His mother stared back at him.
Confused.
Terrified.
Daniel continued.
“Rachel found out what she did.”
Lucas couldn't breathe.
“What did Mom do?”
A crash sounded through the phone.
Daniel gasped.
“Daniel?”
Then a second voice spoke.
A woman's voice.
Calm.
Close to Daniel.
Lucas recognized it instantly.
Margaret.
His mother.
But Margaret was standing six feet away from him.
The voice on the phone said:
May you like
“You should have stayed quiet.”
Then the call disconnected.
