Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE CAMERA
The next morning, Detective Elena Morris returned to my hospital room.
She didn't come alone.
A man in a gray suit followed her inside.
“This is Daniel Reed,” she said. “He's a forensic accountant working with the investigation.”
I stared at him.
“Why would an accountant be investigating my husband?”
Daniel placed a thick folder on the table.
“Because your husband wasn't just preparing to leave you.”
He opened the folder.
“He was preparing to make sure you couldn't survive financially.”
My throat tightened.
The first pages showed bank transfers.
Thousands of dollars.
Then tens of thousands.
Money had been moved from our joint savings into an account I had never seen.
Another transfer had been made to a company registered under Vanessa's name.
“How much?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Approximately four hundred and eighty thousand dollars.”
I couldn't speak.
That money represented years of work.
Our house.
Our savings.
The future I thought we were building for our child.
Then Daniel turned another page.
“This is the important part.”
He showed me a company registration.
The owner was David.
The mailing address was Vanessa's apartment.
“He was transferring marital assets into a shell company.”
Detective Morris added, “And according to the evidence recovered from your home, he planned to sell the house shortly after your death.”
I stared at her.
“My death?”
She nodded.
“He had already spoken with a real-estate agent.”
My hands trembled.
Then I remembered something.
“Vanessa.”
Both of them looked at me.
“She wasn't just his girlfriend.”
“What do you mean?”
“She knew about the insurance policy.”
Detective Morris became very still.
“How do you know?”
“Because she once asked me how much the house was worth.”
Daniel exchanged a look with the detective.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Daniel closed his folder.
“That's significant.”
Before they could say anything else, my phone rang.
I froze.
My phone had been confiscated by police.
A nurse handed it to me.
“There was a message.”
I looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
YOU DON'T KNOW WHO SAVED YOU.
Another message appeared.
AND YOU DON'T KNOW WHO WANTS YOU DEAD.
I stared at the screen.
Then came a photograph.
It showed Vanessa standing outside the hospital.
My blood turned cold.
“She knows I'm alive.”
Detective Morris took the phone.
“Don't respond.”
But another message arrived.
ASK YOUR HUSBAND ABOUT THE NIGHT YOUR FATHER DIED.
I stopped breathing.
My father had died six years earlier.
An accident.
At least, that's what David had always told me.
Detective Morris saw my expression.
“What happened to your father?”
I looked at her.
“I thought it was an accident.”
May you like
She slowly placed the phone on the table.
“Then we may have just found the reason someone installed that camera.”
