Chapter 5 - RICHARD HAD MET VANESSA BEFORE
Richard stared at the photograph.
“No.”
Anna looked at him.
“You know her.”
“I didn’t.”
“Richard.”
“I swear to you.”
Vanessa sat in the background of Emma’s photograph beside Marcus.
Across from them was another man.
Richard.
Anna zoomed in.
There was no mistake.
Richard was sitting at the same table.
His face clearly visible.
Richard backed away from the laptop.
“I don’t remember this.”
Anna stared at him.
“You’re in the picture.”
“I can see that.”
“So why did you tell everyone you met Vanessa at the Barrington Foundation dinner?”
“Because I did.”
“Apparently not.”
His voice rose.
“I would remember meeting the woman I later got engaged to!”
Leo stirred.
Anna immediately lowered her voice.
Richard did too.
Silence filled the room.
Then Richard sat down.
“I don’t remember that dinner.”
Anna studied the photo.
Richard looked younger.
Emma was alive.
Vanessa’s hair was shorter.
Marcus looked directly toward the camera, as though he knew someone was taking the picture.
The fourth person’s face was partially obscured.
Detective Mills arrived twenty minutes later.
Richard told her everything.
She studied the photograph.
“Could this have been a business meeting?”
Richard shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you recognize the restaurant?”
“No.”
Anna did.
“Harbor House.”
Richard looked at her.
“How?”
“Emma took me there once.”
“Where?”
“Lake Geneva.”
The memory came back slowly.
Emma had taken Anna to lunch there after one of her medical appointments.
Emma was distracted.
Kept looking toward the windows.
At the time, Anna assumed she was afraid of bad news from doctors.
Now Anna wondered if she had been watching someone.
Detective Mills ran the date.
Credit-card records.
Calendar entries.
Phone locations.
Richard’s calendar said he had attended a medical-device investor meeting at Lake Geneva that afternoon.
“Who arranged it?” Mills asked.
Richard searched old emails.
The invitation came from a firm called Harlan Strategic Consulting.
He frowned.
“Never heard of them.”
“Did you attend?”
“I must have.”
“Who was the contact?”
He opened the attached invitation.
Marcus Hale.
Anna whispered:
“So Marcus introduced you to Vanessa before Vanessa supposedly introduced herself.”
Richard rubbed his face.
“Why don’t I remember her?”
Detective Mills looked at him.
“Maybe you met briefly.”
“Maybe.”
But Anna didn’t believe it.
Neither did Richard.
Emma’s video continued.
She had taken more photographs.
Vanessa outside Richard’s office building.
Marcus entering the parking structure near their home.
A black SUV parked across the street.
Then Emma spoke again:
“I believe someone is trying to build a relationship with Richard.”
Richard stopped the video.
He couldn’t breathe.
Anna reached for his hand.
Emma continued when he pressed play.
“If I die, Richard will be lonely.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“He loves deeply. That is one of the things I love most about him.”
Richard broke.
Emma swallowed.
“And lonely people can be approached carefully.”
Detective Mills said nothing.
Neither did Anna.
Emma looked into the camera.
“If someone new enters his life quickly, do not punish him for needing love.”
Richard sobbed.
“But verify who they are.”
Then Emma said the words that changed everything:
“Especially if her name is Vanessa Hale.”
Anna felt the room go cold.
Richard whispered:
“Emma knew her name.”
The video continued.
“I don’t know what Vanessa wants.”
A pause.
“But Marcus Hale asked my attorney about Leo’s trust six months before my diagnosis.”
Detective Mills immediately wrote it down.
“And one more thing.”
Emma’s expression shifted.
Fear.
“If I die sooner than my doctors expect, do not assume the cancer was the only reason.”
Richard stood so fast his chair hit the wall.
Anna stared at the screen.
“No.”
Detective Mills looked at both of them.
“What exactly did Emma die from?”
Richard’s face went pale.
“Pancreatic cancer.”
“That’s what caused death?”
“Yes.”
“Was there an autopsy?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“My wife had terminal cancer.”
Mills nodded slowly.
“Of course.”
Then Emma’s video displayed one final file.
A laboratory report.
Blood toxicology.
Taken eleven days before she died.
One substance was highlighted.
May you like
A medication Emma had never been prescribed.
At a concentration high enough to cause respiratory failure.
