Chapter 6 - THE MAN BESIDE THE RIVER
Daniel Voss was not in the truck.
Police dogs followed his trail from the riverbank to an old maintenance shed half a mile away. Grant, Caleb, and I waited at the estate while detectives searched. At two in the morning, the call finally came.
Voss was alive.
He had been hiding beneath the shed floor with a deep cut on his shoulder and a phone containing six missed calls from Renata's brother, Owen Cole.
An ambulance took him to a guarded hospital room. Grant wanted to go immediately, but Detective Mara Hayes stopped him.
"You are a witness and a possible target," she said. "You do not walk into an active scene because you own a helicopter."
Grant looked ready to argue. Then Lily appeared at the library door in borrowed pajamas, holding my hand.
He stayed.
The next morning, Detective Hayes interviewed Voss. He admitted inspecting Margaret's car after the crash. The brake line had been cut and partially sealed with a compound designed to fail under heat and pressure.
"Why did your report say the brakes were normal?" Hayes asked.
Voss looked at the floor. "Owen Cole paid me. Then he showed me pictures of my daughter walking home from school."
"Did Renata order it?"
"I never heard her say the words. But Owen said his sister needed the problem removed before the trust vote."
Grant's face hardened. "What trust vote?"
His attorney explained. Margaret had owned twelve percent of Callahan Industrial. Her will placed those shares in a trust for Lily. Until Lily turned eighteen, Grant controlled the vote unless a court declared him unfit or the child required a separate guardian.
Renata had been trying to become that guardian.
"She told everyone Lily needed a mother," I said.
"She needed the shares," Grant answered.
Detective Hayes received a message and stepped into the hall. When she returned, her expression had changed.
"Voss's hospital guard was attacked," she said. "Someone dressed as a nurse entered his room."
"Is he alive?" I asked.
"Yes. The guard interrupted them."
She placed a photograph on the table. It showed the fake nurse fleeing through a stairwell.
The face was hidden, but a tattoo was visible above the glove.
Caleb recognized it.
"That is Renata's personal driver," he said.
Grant stared at the image.
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Then an alarm sounded from the estate gate.
A black SUV had just crashed through the outer barrier.
