Chapter 15 - The Bride's Last Offer
Natalie wasn't at the airport when police checked. She had booked a flight using a company account she no longer controlled, then driven instead to an old parish hall on the edge of the city. She called Priya and asked for a lawyer. Her father had learned she was speaking with Owen, and she wanted protection before she told anyone more.
Owen did not go to meet her. He went to see Talia, who was sitting on the steps of the closed music hall with Victor's old key ring in her hands.
"They said she was afraid of her father," Talia told him. "Does being afraid make what she did smaller?"
"No."
"Then don't let anyone turn her into the brave heroine of this mess."
"I won't."
With counsel present, Natalie gave investigators a statement. Martin had wanted the music hall gone before neighborhood advocates could block his purchase of the block. The building carried restrictive preservation covenants; a catastrophic fire could make redevelopment easier. Natalie had signed the order to disable the alarms after Martin told her the property would be unoccupied.
She learned Victor was scheduled to work that night at 9:15 p.m., when an employee forwarded a shift roster. She called Martin. He told her the man had been sent home. She didn't verify it. She went to dinner, turned off her phone, and let the work proceed.
"When I heard someone died, I wanted to go to the police," she told investigators. "My father showed me the work order. He said I'd be charged with murder."
"So you let Adam go to prison?" Priya asked through the recording supplied after the interview.
"I told myself the jury had other evidence. I told myself I hadn't seen everything."
"Did you know the camera footage was altered?"
Natalie's face crumpled. "Yes. I knew before the trial."
She described how a security contractor spliced images from different nights and how Martin persuaded a former prosecutor to bury the emergency call. She also told investigators where a second copy of Adam's card had been stored: in a safety-deposit box controlled by her father's holding company. She provided the location and signed permission to search her own records.
Then she asked that Owen be given a letter.
May you like
He unfolded it in Priya's office. It began, I loved you, and I don't expect you to believe that anymore.
The final line made him put it down: I was standing across the street when the smoke came out. I heard a man hitting the door, and I drove away.
