Chapter 8 - Natalie’s Confession
Natalie called me the next afternoon.
Her voice was barely audible.
“I need to see you.”
“Tell me where.”
“No police.”
“That isn’t happening.”
“Daniel, if Grant sees police, he’ll disappear.”
“You think I’m still taking your instructions?”
She began crying.
“I know what I did to Owen.”
My anger rose instantly.
“Do not make this about your guilt.”
“I panicked.”
“You raised a hanger at my six-year-old daughter.”
“I know.”
“You put bruises on my son.”
“I know.”
There was nothing she could say that would erase that.
I agreed to meet only after Ruiz arranged surveillance.
Natalie chose a crowded diner.
She looked different when she arrived.
No makeup.
Hair unwashed.
A bruise-colored exhaustion beneath her eyes.
I remained standing.
“Start talking.”
She looked at the detectives sitting several tables away.
Then back at me.
“Laura discovered the accounts.”
“I know.”
“She asked me to help copy the records.”
That surprised me.
“You were helping her?”
“At first.”
Natalie rubbed her hands together.
“Then Peter found out.”
She said Peter controlled the shell companies and had been blackmailing Grant for years.
Grant started the fraud.
Peter turned it into something bigger.
When Laura threatened to expose them, Peter ordered Natalie to find where she had hidden the copies.
“Why did you marry me?”
My voice came out quiet.
Natalie looked down.
“Peter wanted someone close to you.”
I felt physically sick.
“So our marriage was surveillance.”
“At first.”
I laughed without humor.
“There is no sentence you can say after that which makes it better.”
“I know.”
She reached into her jacket.
Ruiz stood immediately.
Natalie slowly placed an old motel keycard on the table.
“Laura survived the crash.”
My hands curled into fists.
“I was there after they brought her out.”
“Where?”
“An abandoned lodge near Lake Greenwood.”
“Why?”
“Grant thought he could convince her to stay quiet.”
“And Peter?”
Natalie looked at me.
“Peter never planned to let her leave.”
She slid the keycard toward me.
“Laura escaped once.”
My heart pounded.
“Where did she go?”
Natalie whispered.
“To a roadside motel.”
May you like
“And?”
“She hid something in Room 12.”
