Chapter 9 - THE MISSING CAMERA
The original crash photographs showed damage on the passenger side.
Investigators had attributed it to the guardrail.
Julian claimed Marjorie possessed a dashcam card proving the corporate SUV clipped Isabelle’s vehicle before the crash.
If true, the accident became more serious.
If false, Julian was trying to redirect blame.
Where was the card?
Marjorie hid it.
According to Julian, she placed it in a safe-deposit box and told him she would release it if anyone tried to blame Emily.
After Marjorie died, Julian accessed her email looking for the box number.
He found the draft confession to me.
He deleted it.
That alone was unforgivable.
“Did you find the card?”
“No.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
At least he understood.
We found the safe-deposit record through Marjorie’s estate.
The box had been closed by Charles six months after her death.
Charles went pale.
“I closed her bank box as executor.”
“What was inside?”
“Jewelry. papers.”
“Dashcam?”
He shook his head.
Then remembered.
“A memory card.”
My heart stopped.
“What did you do with it?”
“I didn’t know what it was. I put everything digital into a storage envelope with estate media.”
The envelope still existed in Laurent Holdings archive storage.
Ten years of dust.
One tiny SD card.
We played it in Evelyn’s office.
Dark highway.
Rain.
Isabelle’s car ahead.
Corporate SUV approaching from behind.
Daniel Ross pulled alongside.
The vehicles came dangerously close.
Then the SUV’s front corner touched Isabelle’s rear quarter panel.
Not hard.
Enough.
Her car fishtailed.
The recording jolted.
Guardrail.
Blackness.
Daniel had lied.
He hit them.
Charles stood when he saw it.
“No.”
“You ordered him to stop her.”
“I never ordered contact.”
“But you buried the vehicle’s involvement.”
“Yes.”
Sofia stared at him.
“You knew your daughter was alive and still protected him?”
Charles could barely speak.
“I protected the company.”
Sofia’s face hardened.
“No. You keep changing the noun.”
He looked at her.
She continued.
“You protected yourself.”
The dashcam proved Daniel caused the crash.
But then the final seconds played.
After the wreck, the camera kept recording audio.
Marjorie’s voice.
“Oh my God, Isabelle.”
Then Daniel:
“The other girl’s dead.”
Then a third voice.
Male.
“Switch the necklaces before the ambulance gets here.”
We all froze.
It was not Charles.
It was Julian’s father.
May you like
Henry Cross.
The man who had allegedly known nothing.
