Chapter 11 - Blood in the Car.
Vanessa stopped breathing for a second.
Elena watched the reaction closely.
It was not the outrage of someone falsely accused.
It was fear.
"Where did you find the car?" Vanessa asked.
Ruiz heard her voice through the phone.
His tone changed immediately.
"She's with you?"
"Yes."
"Get security in that room now."
Vanessa stood.
"I didn't hurt Caleb."
Margaret moved between her and Elena again.
"Sit down."
Vanessa ignored her.
"Detective, I drove his car yesterday."
Ruiz paused.
"Why?"
"He said someone was following him."
"He asked me to move it from a garage downtown to the north station."
"I left it there."
Ruiz's silence carried suspicion.
Elena pressed the phone closer.
"How much blood?"
"Enough to concern me."
"Not enough to prove someone died."
Vanessa closed her eyes.
"Daniel found him."
Ruiz responded quickly.
"How do you know?"
"Because Daniel always said Caleb was temporary."
"He hated him."
"He called him a man with a grievance and no discipline."
Margaret's jaw tightened.
"That sounds like Daniel."
A hospital security officer appeared at the door.
Elena raised one hand.
"Wait outside, please."
The officer hesitated, then obeyed after Margaret nodded.
Ruiz continued.
"Vanessa, where were you between four and six this morning?"
"At my apartment."
"Alone?"
Vanessa looked toward Elena.
"Yes."
Ruiz exhaled quietly.
"Then you have no alibi."
Vanessa's frustration broke through.
"Because I didn't know I would need one."
Elena studied her.
The answer sounded genuine.
That did not make Vanessa innocent.
It only meant she might be innocent of this particular crime.
"What was Caleb carrying?" Elena asked.
Vanessa frowned.
"When?"
"When you last saw him."
"A canvas messenger bag."
"Brown."
"He never let it out of his sight."
Elena remembered the missing red folder and original deed.
"Could both documents fit inside?"
"Easily."
Ruiz spoke.
"We didn't find a bag in the car."
That meant Caleb had either escaped with the evidence or someone had taken it from him.
Elena looked at the brass key.
"We need to search the textile mill."
Ruiz answered immediately.
"My team is heading there."
Vanessa stepped closer to the phone.
"Don't use the front entrance."
"Why?"
"Daniel knows the security system."
"He used the mill after he disappeared."
Margaret stared at her.
"How could you possibly know that?"
Vanessa's eyes filled with shame.
"Because I've been there with him."
Nathan walked into the room at that exact moment.
He stopped in the doorway.
"You've been where with Daniel?"
Vanessa turned slowly.
Nathan's face had lost every trace of softness.
"How long have you known my brother was alive?"
Vanessa did not answer.
"How long?"
"Four months."
The confession struck Nathan like a physical blow.
"You sat at my table."
"You looked my mother in the eye."
"You watched us mourn him for seven years."
Vanessa whispered.
"He told me he would explain everything when it was over."
Nathan laughed once without humor.
"And you believed him?"
Vanessa looked at Elena.
"I believed what I wanted to believe."
Nathan stepped into the room.
"Ruiz found something else at the mansion."
Elena's stomach tightened.
"What?"
Nathan held up a printed photograph.
It showed Elena asleep in her own bedroom.
The image had been taken from inside the room.
On the back, someone had written six words.
SHE NEVER KNEW WHO WAS WATCHING.
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THE REVERSED PLAN
