Chapter 10
The meeting lasted less than an hour.
It changed eighteen months of grief.
Investigators had rebuilt the transportation timeline from the venue manifest, fleet archive, toll data, Northbridge records, and statements from two former drivers.
The black sedan had been prepared for Raffaele.
Marcus controlled the schedule.
Daniel Price’s vehicle followed the route.
And Anna had taken the sedan only because Lucy became sick and her own assigned driver had already left with the child.
Nobody had planned that substitution.
Not even Marcus.
The intended passenger was Raffaele.
The investigators could not yet prove exactly what Daniel had been told to do.
But financial records showed a payment routed through Northbridge to a company tied to him immediately after the crash.
A second payment had been scheduled.
It was canceled after Anna died.
Three earlier details suddenly meant something different.
Marcus’s panic when Lucy repeated that Anna “didn’t die by accident.”
His phrase that the wrong person died.
And Lucy remembering that “Daddy was supposed to be in the black car.”
Anna had not been killed because she discovered Marcus’s fraud.
At least not primarily.
Marcus had feared Raffaele would eventually discover it.
Anna’s questions increased that risk.
But removing Anna would not protect Marcus for long.
Removing Raffaele would.
If Raffaele died, the organization would enter a messy transition.
Marcus controlled transportation, security, and enough operational relationships to position himself near the center of whatever came next.
Anna had gotten into the wrong car.
The plan continued anyway.
Raffaele sat with both hands flat on the table.
Claire watched him carefully.
“You need to stay here.”
“I’m staying.”
“Raffaele.”
“I said I’m staying.”
For the first time, he understood why she kept repeating herself.
The man he had trusted had apparently built a plan around Raffaele’s death.
Anna had paid the price.
And Raffaele himself had made Marcus powerful enough to attempt it.
He thought of Anna warning him.
His irritation.
His certainty.
His refusal to look.
Then another realization came.
Celeste had married him after Anna died.
If Marcus had wanted Raffaele dead once, what had stopped him from trying again?
Raffaele looked at Claire.
“Was Celeste part of the original plan?”
“We don’t know.”
That was the immediate choice.
He could confront her with the theory and risk contaminating whatever she knew.
Or he could allow investigators to question her independently.
For once, Raffaele chose the option that gave him less control.
“Don’t tell her what you just told me.”
Claire nodded.
May you like
“What do you want done?”
“Let her tell the story before she knows what answer we already have.”
