Chapter 13 - Caroline’s File
By sunrise, Maya was sleeping in a private room at St. Anne’s Hospital.
Doctors found bruising on her wrist and mild dehydration, but no serious physical injury.
Richard sat beside her bed until she finally released his finger in her sleep.
Then Daniel entered carrying a laptop.
“You sure?” he asked.
Richard nodded.
Daniel opened the recovered drive.
Folders filled the screen.
Shell companies.
Bribes.
Fake consulting contracts.
Internal memos showing Marcus had been skimming money from Sterling Global for at least six years.
Then Daniel clicked a folder labeled C.S.
Caroline Sterling.
Inside was an audio recording from three years earlier.
Marcus’s voice came first.
“She found the accounts.”
A second voice answered.
Richard leaned closer.
He knew it.
Victoria.
At the time, Victoria had been a communications consultant hired during a corporate crisis. Richard had barely known her.
“What does she know?” Victoria asked on the recording.
“Enough to ruin everything.”
“What are you going to do?”
A pause.
Then Marcus said, “Make sure she never gets to Richard with it.”
Richard’s face went white.
The audio ended.
“No,” he whispered.
Daniel did not speak.
There was another file.
A payment to a private mechanic two days before Caroline’s crash.
Another payment the day after.
Richard stood so fast the chair fell backward.
“They killed her.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
Richard turned on him. “They killed her.”
Daniel’s voice stayed steady. “We have evidence of conspiracy. We need the police to verify the rest.”
Richard looked at Maya through the glass.
For three years he had blamed weather, chance, fate.
He had blamed himself for being in London when Caroline died.
And six months after the funeral, Victoria had appeared at a charity dinner.
Kind.
Patient.
Understanding.
She had known exactly where his grief was softest.
Officer Brooks entered the room.
“We found the mechanic.”
Richard faced her.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Did he talk?”
Brooks held his gaze.
“He asked for a lawyer first.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“Then?”
“Then he told us who paid him to tamper with Caroline’s car.”
Richard stopped breathing.
May you like
Brooks continued.
“It wasn’t Marcus.”
