Chapter 5 - The Missing Eleven Minutes
Victoria did not run.
That was the first thing Adrian noticed.
She walked slowly back down the staircase.
Her face was pale.
Her eyes remained on Conrad.
“You are lying.”
Conrad adjusted his coat after Adrian released him.
“I wish I were.”
“You told me Claire was already dead when you reached the accident.”
“That was the official account.”
“Why would you tell me anything about Claire’s death?”
“Because you asked.”
Victoria frowned.
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
“I barely knew you four years ago.”
Conrad’s jaw tightened.
Victoria looked at Adrian.
“I met Conrad at Laurent Hotels during a refinancing project.”
Adrian nodded slowly.
“I remember.”
“I asked why he left a gala early one night.”
She turned back toward Conrad.
“You said there had been an emergency involving Claire.”
Conrad remained silent.
“You said she died before anyone reached the vehicle.”
Ortiz stepped between them.
“We need to slow down.”
Adrian ignored her.
“What exactly did Claire say?”
Conrad looked toward the floor.
“She was barely conscious.”
“Exact words.”
“She said, ‘Laurent knows.’”
Victoria stared.
“That is not my name.”
Everyone looked at her.
Victoria continued.
“It is my family name, but Claire would not have used it to mean me.”
Adrian frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“My father ran the Laurent Foundation.”
Conrad’s expression changed.
Victoria saw it.
“So did my uncle.”
Ortiz looked at Conrad.
“You left that out.”
“I reported what Claire said.”
“No.”
Adrian’s voice hardened.
“You hid it for three years.”
Conrad remained silent.
Adrian stepped closer.
“You did not report anything.”
Conrad looked at Detective Ortiz.
“At the time, there was no evidence of foul play.”
“There was an inhaler that did not belong in the car.”
“I did not know that then.”
“Elias did.”
Conrad’s eyes moved.
Adrian saw the recognition.
“You knew Elias had tested Claire’s medication.”
Conrad said nothing.
“You knew before she died.”
Silence.
Ortiz spoke.
“Mr. Hale, I strongly recommend you contact independent counsel.”
Conrad looked at her.
“Am I being detained?”
“Not yet.”
“Then I am leaving.”
Adrian blocked the doorway.
“No.”
Ortiz touched Adrian’s arm.
“You cannot stop him.”
Adrian looked at her.
“He has evidence from my wife’s death.”
“I know.”
“He admitted concealing it.”
“I heard him.”
“And you are letting him walk?”
Ortiz’s voice became firm.
“I am telling you not to destroy my case because you are angry.”
Adrian stared at Conrad.
Conrad almost looked relieved.
Then Ortiz continued.
“Mr. Hale, your passport will be flagged within the hour.”
The relief vanished.
“You will surrender the original device containing every communication you had with Claire in the month before her death.”
Conrad’s mouth tightened.
“And if I learn you deleted anything, I will have a warrant before sunrise.”
Conrad nodded.
“Understood.”
He walked toward the entrance.
Before leaving, he turned toward Adrian.
“Check the security footage from the night Claire died.”
Adrian’s gaze narrowed.
“Why?”
“Because I was not the last person from this house who saw her alive.”
“Who was?”
Conrad looked toward Victoria.
Then at the staircase.
“Eleven minutes are missing.”
Adrian froze.
“What?”
“From the west gate camera.”
“Why?”
Conrad opened the door.
“That is the question Claire wanted answered.”
Then he left.
Owen was already at the security workstation before Adrian reached the basement.
The original archives from three years earlier had been pulled from cold storage.
Most footage was intact.
At 7:12 p.m., Claire’s car exited the main garage.
At 7:15, she paused at the west gate.
At 7:16, the recording skipped.
At 7:27, the image returned.
The road was empty.
Adrian stared at the timestamp.
“Eleven minutes.”
Owen nodded.
“Exactly.”
“Was this noted in the accident investigation?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“The system generated a maintenance error.”
“Convenient.”
“Very.”
Adrian leaned closer.
“Can you recover anything?”
“Maybe.”
Owen opened the raw storage file.
“The visible video is gone.”
“But?”
“Camera metadata sometimes survives separately.”
He typed.
Numbers filled the screen.
Owen stopped.
“There.”
“What?”
“The gate opened twice during the missing interval.”
Adrian felt his pulse quicken.
“For Claire?”
“No.”
“She was already outside.”
Owen pointed.
“First opening at 7:18.”
“Second?”
“7:24.”
“Vehicle?”
“System records weight.”
Owen calculated.
“First crossing was approximately twenty-two hundred kilograms.”
“SUV.”
“Likely.”
“Second?”
“Same approximate weight.”
Adrian stared.
“One vehicle went out and came back.”
“Looks that way.”
“Who owned an SUV with gate authorization?”
Owen searched the records.
Seventeen vehicles appeared.
Adrian recognized most names.
Conrad.
Julian.
Claire.
Grace.
Two drivers.
Three security officers.
And Laurent Foundation.
Adrian frowned.
“Why would Laurent Foundation have estate access?”
Owen clicked.
“Authorization added four months before Claire died.”
“By whom?”
Another search.
Owen’s face changed.
“Claire.”
Adrian stared at the screen.
“She gave them access?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Owen opened the attached note.
FOUNDATION MEDICAL OUTREACH PARTNERSHIP.
Adrian remembered.
Claire had been developing a pediatric respiratory program.
Laurent Foundation had funded part of it.
Victoria’s father, Henri Laurent, had attended meetings at the estate.
Henri had died two years later from a stroke.
Victoria had inherited his company.
Adrian’s thoughts shifted.
“Who from Laurent came here that night?”
Owen searched visitor logs.
No entry.
Adrian looked at him.
“Can the plate scanner be recovered?”
“Trying.”
The computer processed.
A partial record appeared.
Owen read it twice.
“What?”
“The plate belonged to Laurent Foundation.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Registered driver?”
Owen scrolled.
“Henri Laurent.”
Victoria’s father.
Adrian went upstairs.
Victoria sat alone in the west sitting room.
She had removed her coat.
A cup of tea beside her remained untouched.
Adrian closed the door.
“Your father came to my house the night Claire died.”
Victoria looked up sharply.
“What?”
“Seven eighteen p.m.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I have the gate record.”
She stood.
“My father was in Geneva.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was with him.”
Adrian stopped.
“Where?”
“Geneva.”
“For how long?”
“Three days.”
“Can you prove it?”
“I can prove we attended a dinner with sixty people.”
Adrian stared at her.
“Then who drove his vehicle?”
Victoria’s expression changed.
“My father did not let anyone use that SUV.”
“Apparently he did.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Unless.”
“What?”
Victoria looked toward the window.
“There was one person.”
“Who?”
“My uncle.”
Adrian remembered the photograph from Claire’s box.
“Name.”
“Sebastian Laurent.”
“Where is he now?”
Victoria slowly looked back at him.
“He disappeared six months after Claire died.”
Adrian’s chest tightened.
“Disappeared?”
“The family said he moved to Argentina.”
“You never questioned it?”
“I was twenty-nine and trying to save a company after my father’s stroke.”
“Did Sebastian know Claire?”
“Very well.”
“How well?”
Victoria hesitated.
“Too well.”
Adrian stared.
“Explain.”
“Sebastian and Claire worked together on the respiratory foundation.”
“And?”
“He became obsessed with her.”
Adrian felt something dark rise inside him.
“Obsessed how?”
“He called constantly.”
“Claire never told me.”
“She may not have known how serious it was.”
“You knew?”
“My father did.”
“What did he do?”
“He removed Sebastian from the foundation.”
“When?”
Victoria looked at Adrian.
“Five days before Claire died.”
Silence.
Adrian’s phone rang.
Owen.
He answered immediately.
“Tell me.”
“We recovered a still frame from a traffic camera two miles from the estate.”
“And?”
“Claire’s car is visible.”
Adrian waited.
“There is another vehicle behind her.”
“The Laurent SUV?”
“Yes.”
“Can you see the driver?”
“Not clearly.”
“Anything?”
“A passenger.”
Adrian frowned.
“Who?”
“I’m sending the image.”
His phone vibrated.
Adrian opened it.
The photograph was grainy.
Claire’s silver car occupied the front of the frame.
A black Laurent SUV followed.
Someone sat in the passenger seat.
The face was blurred.
But the clothing was visible.
A burgundy uniform.
Adrian stared.
Victoria looked at the phone.
“That is the same uniform Meredith wears.”
Adrian nodded.
The Vale household had used burgundy staff uniforms for six years.
He zoomed in.
The passenger appeared female.
Blonde.
Victoria’s voice became quiet.
“Meredith told you she had never been here before nine months ago.”
“Yes.”
Adrian enlarged the image again.
The woman looked almost identical to her.
Victoria whispered.
“She lied.”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
He stared at the timestamp.
“Meredith was twenty-seven when Claire died.”
He turned toward the door.
“And I am going to ask her why she was following my wife the night she died.”
They reached the medical room.
Marcus stood outside.
His expression told Adrian something was wrong.
“What happened?”
Marcus opened the door.
The bed was empty.
Adrian stared.
“Where is Meredith?”
“She was here three minutes ago.”
Adrian turned on him.
“Again?”
Marcus held up a hand.
“No one entered.”
“Then how did she leave?”
“She didn’t.”
Adrian looked inside.
Marcus pointed toward the monitor.
“Her heart rate alarm went off.”
“So?”
“When the nurse entered, Meredith was gone.”
Victoria frowned.
“That makes no sense.”
Marcus stepped toward the bed.
He pulled back the mattress.
A square opening had been cut beneath it.
Another passage.
Adrian stared into darkness.
His mansion was beginning to feel like a structure built for secrets rather than a home.
Owen’s radio crackled.
“We have movement in the west tunnel.”
Adrian took the radio.
“Who?”
A guard answered.
“Female.”
“Stop her.”
“We’re trying.”
A shout sounded over the radio.
Then static.
Adrian ran.
The west tunnel ended near the old greenhouse.
He reached the exterior door as two guards emerged.
One held his shoulder.
“She got past us.”
“Which direction?”
“Woods.”
Adrian moved toward the trees.
Then a voice came from behind him.
“Daddy?”
He stopped breathing.
Lily stood fifty feet away.
Alone.
Barefoot.
Still wearing her yellow dress.
Adrian’s blood went cold.
“Lily.”
She smiled sleepily.
“Meredith said you wanted me.”
Adrian ran toward her.
“No.”
Something moved behind the trees.
A burgundy figure.
Adrian reached Lily and pulled her into his arms.
Marcus sprinted past him.
“Stop!”
Meredith disappeared into the darkness.
Lily looked at Adrian.
“Why are you mad?”
“I’m not mad at you.”
“She said we were going to see Mommy.”
Adrian froze.
“What?”
Lily pointed toward the woods.
“She said Mommy’s waiting.”
Adrian looked at the dark tree line.
Three years after Claire’s burial, someone was using her memory to lure her daughter out of the house.
May you like
And this time, Adrian knew with absolute certainty that Meredith was not acting alone.
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