Chapter 12 - He Knew Enough

Nobody moved.

Ryan had just given us the first crack in his defense.

"She wasn't supposed to touch me," I repeated. "What was she supposed to do?"

"I shouldn't have called."

"What was she supposed to do, Ryan?"

His breath shook through the speaker.

"Convince you to stay. Keep you from leaving until I got home. That's all."

"By drugging me?"

"I didn't know about the pills."

"By forging my medical records?"

"That was legal planning."

Claire silently mouthed, Keep him talking.

"You forged my name."

"I was protecting the company."

"You were protecting yourself."

His voice hardened.

"Do you think that company exists without me? Your father put money into a dying business and everybody acts like that made you the genius. I built everything."

"Then why did you need my signature?"

He said nothing.

I pressed harder.

"Where is Vanessa?"

"I don't know."

A woman's voice sounded faintly in the background.

"Ryan, hang up."

Vanessa.

Maya's eyes widened.

"You do know," I said.

The call ended.

Detective Ortiz immediately sent the recording for tracing and analysis.

For the next hour, nobody said much.

Then a location came back.

The call had bounced through an internet service, but a nearby traffic camera captured Ryan's SUV outside a private airfield.

Police reached the airfield before the jet departed.

Ryan was arrested on the tarmac.

Vanessa was not with him.

The SUV contained two suitcases, cash, and documents related to an overseas account.

It also contained a second phone.

That phone changed everything.

The messages between Ryan and Vanessa were not romantic anymore.

They were panicked.

V: She saw the tablet.

R: Keep her there. I am ten minutes away.

V: She's leaving.

R: Do not let her leave with those screenshots.

V: How?

R: I don't care. Stop her.

Then, six minutes later:

V: She fell.

R: What did you do?

V: I fixed the problem.

Ryan did not answer for ninety seconds.

Then he wrote:

Delete the exterior footage now.

Detective Ortiz showed me the final message in silence.

Ryan may not have ordered Vanessa to push me.

But after she did, he tried to erase the proof.

And Vanessa was still missing.

Then Noah called Maya.

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His voice was barely above a whisper.

"She's here."