Chapter 8 - CLAIRE’S LAST DRIVE
Claire’s accident had happened on a wet October road three years earlier.
A truck crossed the center line.
Her driver swerved.
The car hit a barrier.
The truck disappeared.
At the time, police called it a tragic hit-and-run.
Now Serena pulled the file apart.
The truck’s plate had never been identified.
The traffic camera near the crash had malfunctioned.
Claire’s driver died at the scene.
Claire died six hours later.
Arthur had spent years blaming bad weather.
Maya sat beside him as Serena showed him the old report.
“You don’t have to look at this.”
“Yes, I do.”
Arthur’s voice was flat.
“I stopped looking three years ago.”
“That doesn’t mean you failed her.”
He glanced at Maya.
“You always say things like that?”
“Only when rich men are being dramatic.”
A small laugh escaped him.
Then disappeared.
Serena came back into the room carrying a file.
“We found the truck.”
Arthur stood.
“What?”
“Not the actual vehicle. The company.”
The plate was unreadable in the original footage, but digital enhancement recovered part of a logo.
Vale Logistics.
A transport company Richard had owned under his real name.
Arthur stared.
“That proves he had access to trucks.”
“Not that he caused the crash.”
“I know.”
Serena continued.
“But there’s more.”
The driver who operated that route was paid seventy-five thousand dollars two days after Claire died.
“By whom?”
“A consulting company linked to Isabella.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
Maya whispered, “There it is.”
Serena shook her head.
“Still circumstantial.”
“Then we get more.”
That afternoon, police found the driver.
He was living under another name in Nevada.
He denied everything for three hours.
Then they showed him the bank transfer.
He asked for a lawyer.
By evening, he was cooperating.
The truth was uglier than Arthur expected.
Richard had ordered the driver to frighten Claire.
Force her car off the road.
Delay her.
Make her miss a meeting with a forensic accountant.
He claimed he never intended to kill her.
Arthur heard that phrase and nearly lost control.
Never intended.
As if intention changed a funeral.
As if a child grew up without his mother because of an accounting mistake.
The driver gave police one more thing.
A voice message Richard sent afterward.
“She should have stayed out of family business.”
Arthur listened once.
Only once.
Then handed the phone back.
Serena said, “We’ll find him.”
Arthur looked at her.
“No.”
She frowned.
“No?”
“He’ll come to us.”
Maya understood first.
“The audit.”
Arthur nodded.
Richard had not spent years stealing millions just to disappear empty-handed.
“He needs access to the money.”
David stepped in.
“He may also need Claire’s original records destroyed.”
Arthur looked at the blue-box documents.
“Then we make him think we don’t have them.”
They created a trap.
Publicly, Montgomery Holdings announced that the family foundation audit had been delayed because of “records lost during a security incident.”
Privately, Serena put surveillance on every office, account, storage facility, and property Richard might target.
Nothing happened for two days.
Then, at 3:14 a.m., a silent alarm went off inside Claire’s old bedroom.
Arthur woke instantly.
Maya, who had stayed in the guest wing because Lucas still refused to sleep without her nearby, came into the hallway.
“What happened?”
Arthur looked at his phone.
“Someone’s in Claire’s room.”
Police were seven minutes away.
Security was already moving.
Arthur rushed down the hall.
Maya followed despite him telling her not to.
They reached the bedroom.
The door was open.
Inside, a man stood beside the lifted floorboard.
Not Richard.
Arthur froze.
The man turned.
David Hale.
May you like
And in his hand was Claire’s missing blue box.
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