Chapter 8 - THE MAN WHO BROUGHT FLOWERS
Gregory Vale denied wrongdoing.
Of course he did.
Detective Benton interviewed him formally.
Daniel was not present.
But his attorney obtained parts of the timeline later.
Vale admitted Emily raised questions about Riverstone.
He characterized them as “professional disagreements.”
He denied knowing about independent soil samples.
Denied accessing the community-garden shed.
Denied any connection to Emily’s accident.
Then he volunteered something nobody asked.
“Emily was distracted by pregnancy.”
Detective Benton wrote it down.
Daniel read the sentence three times.
That language had appeared before.
In EnviroCore’s internal report after the crash:
Ms. Carter had recently expressed fatigue, nausea, and difficulty concentrating associated with pregnancy.
A narrative.
Not as dramatic as calling someone unstable.
Just enough to explain why a meticulous scientist might drive off a road.
Daniel asked Dr. Harris:
“Could exposure have caused dizziness?”
“Yes.”
“Enough to crash?”
“At sufficiently high levels.”
“Were Emily’s levels sufficiently high?”
“No.”
So poisoning did not explain the accident.
Then forensic analysts reviewed cloud backups from Emily’s work account.
Most files were intact.
One folder had been deleted two hours after her crash.
Not by Emily.
By administrator credentials.
EnviroCore claimed routine retention management.
Nobody believed the timing.
A warrant followed.
This was becoming a real investigation.
Then Halcyon Urban Partners hired criminal counsel.
That mattered too.
But the biggest breakthrough came from Lily.
She drew a map.
Nobody asked her to.
She was sitting in Emily’s room coloring while Daniel read beside the bed.
A rectangle.
Trees.
A red X.
Daniel looked over.
“What’s that?”
“The bad dirt place.”
His heart stopped.
“How do you know about that?”
“Emily took us there.”
Daniel sat upright.
“What?”
Lily looked confused.
“Not inside.”
She explained.
Months before the accident Emily brought Lily, Marisol, and two other volunteers to a creek trail bordering Riverstone.
She said they were doing a “water detective day.”
Emily collected mud.
Lily remembered a man shouting from behind a fence.
“What man?”
Lily shrugged.
“Suit man.”
“What did he say?”
Lily thought.
Then:
“He said, ‘Rebecca already lost this fight.’”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Rebecca.
May you like
Emily’s mother.
The man had known exactly who Emily was.
