Chapter 4 - The Driver Who Was Supposed to Be DeadHis name was Marcus Reed.
For three hours, police technicians tried to recover the files while Daniel waited inside the library of the house where he had grown up.
Every room now looked different.
The portraits.
The photographs.
The polished furniture.
Things he had once associated with family history now seemed like decorations placed over something rotten.
Victoria remained upstairs with her attorneys.
She had not asked to see Daniel.
That hurt more than he expected.
At noon, Detective Brooks entered carrying a laptop.
“We recovered part of the audio.”
Daniel stood immediately.
“How much?”
“Twenty-seven minutes. Some sections are damaged.”
“Play it.”
Brooks hesitated.
“You might want privacy.”
“I’ve had enough secrets.”
She pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then Richard Harrington’s voice emerged.
Older than Daniel remembered.
Tired.
“If anything happens to me tomorrow, this recording should go to Daniel.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
For thirteen years, he had forgotten the exact sound of his father’s voice.
Now the dead man was speaking directly to him.
Richard continued.
“I have confirmed Bennett has been using Harrington subsidiaries to move money for at least eight years. I confronted Victoria tonight.”
A pause.
“She claims she knew nothing.”
Daniel opened his eyes.
His father’s voice continued.
“But someone accessed my office last week. Documents were removed. Only Victoria and Charles knew where I kept them.”
Another burst of static.
“I’m driving to Vermont tomorrow because Charles says he has proof implicating someone else. I don’t trust him.”
Daniel stared at Brooks.
The recording jumped ahead.
Richard was now inside a vehicle.
Road noise could be heard.
Then another voice.
Charles.
Daniel leaned forward.
Bennett had been in the car.
“Richard, you’re making this larger than it needs to be.”
“You stole from the company.”
“I protected it.”
“You laundered money.”
“You think your board cares how money moves as long as profits rise?”
Richard’s voice hardened.
“You’re finished.”
Then a third voice entered.
A woman.
Quiet.
Almost impossible to hear beneath the road noise.
Daniel’s heart stopped.
Victoria.
“Richard, please.”
Daniel stood.
His mother had told police she was in Boston that night.
The official accident report said Richard had been traveling alone.
Yet this recording placed Victoria and Charles inside his car.
The argument intensified.
Victoria begged Richard not to go to authorities.
Richard refused.
Then came a sentence that changed everything.
Charles said, “If you destroy us, you destroy Daniel too.”
Richard answered immediately.
“Leave my son out of this.”
A door slammed.
Footsteps.
The next section was corrupted.
When the audio returned, Richard appeared to be alone.
He was breathing heavily.
Then he said:
“I left them at the lodge. I’m heading back to Boston.”
Static.
Wind.
An engine.
Then his voice became alarmed.
“What the—”
The recording ended.
Daniel stared at the laptop.
“That’s it?”
“For now.”
“My mother lied.”
“Yes.”
“She was with him hours before he died.”
“Yes.”
Daniel walked toward the window.
“Then arrest her.”
“We need evidence connecting her to the crash.”
“She lied to investigators.”
“That can be investigated. But lying about being there doesn’t automatically prove murder.”
Daniel hated that she was right.
Brooks continued.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“The original crash investigation is missing several evidence files.”
Daniel turned.
“Missing?”
“Vehicle inspection photographs, brake analysis, and Richard’s personal effects inventory.”
“Who had access?”
“Still checking.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“I can guess.”
Later that afternoon, Maria prepared to leave the estate with Sofia, her nineteen-year-old daughter.
Daniel insisted on providing them security.
Maria refused money.
“Protection is enough,” she said.
Daniel looked at Sofia.
“I’m sorry your mother was put in danger because of my family.”
Sofia glanced at Maria.
“My mother did what she thought was right.”
Daniel nodded.
“She did.”
Maria touched his arm.
“Mr. Harrington?”
“Yes?”
“Your father was kind to me.”
Daniel looked surprised.
“You knew him?”
“Only briefly. I started working here months before he died.”
Maria remembered Richard asking about her family and helping her find a better doctor when Sofia became seriously ill as a child.
“He didn’t treat people like furniture,” she said.
Daniel smiled sadly.
“That sounds like him.”
Before leaving, Maria hesitated.
“There is something I never understood.”
“What?”
“Three nights before his accident, your father asked me whether anyone had been entering the garage after midnight.”
Daniel frowned.
“Why?”
“I said I didn’t know. He told me if I saw Mr. Bennett near his car, I should call him immediately.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“What kind of car?”
“The Mercedes.”
The same vehicle Richard crashed.
Daniel called Brooks.
Police reopened the old maintenance records.
By evening, they discovered something.
Richard’s car had undergone brake service two days before his death.
The mechanic listed on the paperwork had died years ago.
But his repair shop still existed.
Daniel and Brooks drove there.
The current owner found archived invoices in storage.
There was no record of Richard Harrington’s Mercedes ever being serviced.
Someone had fabricated the maintenance report after the crash.
Brooks looked at Daniel.
“That’s significant.”
“Can you prove who?”
“Not yet.”
They returned to the mansion after dark.
A security guard met Daniel outside.
“Sir, we had an incident.”
“What incident?”
“Someone entered the west wing.”
Daniel’s blood ran cold.
“When?”
“About twenty minutes ago.”
“The police sealed it.”
“They cut through the temporary lock.”
Daniel ran inside.
The hidden room had been disturbed.
Boxes overturned.
Documents scattered.
One entire shelf of files was missing.
On the desk lay a piece of paper.
Daniel picked it up.
Three typed words.
STOP DIGGING, DANIEL.
Brooks immediately ordered everyone out.
Security footage showed a hooded figure entering through a service tunnel beneath the property.
Daniel had never known the tunnel existed.
The person carried away two boxes.
But before disappearing, the intruder looked directly at a camera.
For half a second, the hood slipped.
Maria, watching the playback with Daniel, gasped.
“I know him.”
Daniel froze.
“Who?”
She pointed at the screen.
“That man worked for your mother.”
“What did he do?”
Maria looked frightened.
“He was your father’s driver.”
Daniel stared at the image.
“His driver died in the crash.”
Maria slowly shook her head.
“No, sir.”
“Richard was alone.”
“No.”
Her voice trembled.
May you like
“The driver disappeared the morning after your father died.”
And Daniel suddenly understood that his father’s accident report might contain more lies than truth.
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