Margaret arrived carrying no documents this time.<\/p>\n
She looked relieved by that.<\/p>\n
For once, there was nothing in her hands to hide behind.<\/p>\n
Ruiz placed Victor Shaw\u2019s photograph on the table.<\/p>\n
Margaret stared at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTell us about the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret folded her coat over the back of her chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was before Daniel joined the company.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evan sat beside me.<\/p>\n
Margaret glanced at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may not want him hearing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evan answered before I could.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m staying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret nodded.<\/p>\n
The original Bennett workshop had stood near the river.<\/p>\n
Robert leased half the building.<\/p>\n
Victor Shaw rented the other half.<\/p>\n
Victor repaired commercial refrigeration equipment and occasionally subcontracted for Robert.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were friends?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat changed?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMoney.\u201d<\/p>\n
It always returned to money.<\/p>\n
Victor claimed Robert owed him for several large jobs.<\/p>\n
Robert disputed the amount.<\/p>\n
Their relationship deteriorated.<\/p>\n
Then, one night in 1998, the building burned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas anyone hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret looked at the photograph.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKilled?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we believed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fire consumed most of Victor\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
Investigators found human remains near the rear workbench.<\/p>\n
Identification methods were less advanced then.<\/p>\n
Victor\u2019s wallet was found nearby.<\/p>\n
Dental comparison was inconclusive because records were incomplete.<\/p>\n
The death was accepted as his.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Robert have to do with it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret said it too quickly.<\/p>\n
Ruiz noticed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he think he had to do with it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret\u2019s face tightened.<\/p>\n
Robert and Victor had argued that afternoon.<\/p>\n
Several employees heard them.<\/p>\n
Robert threatened to terminate all business with him.<\/p>\n
Victor threatened to expose something.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI never knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Mark?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark was twenty-one.<\/p>\n
He had begun working full-time for Robert.<\/p>\n
Daniel was seventeen.<\/p>\n
Laura had already been driven from the family.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Mark hear?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVictor said Robert had been falsifying invoices on municipal contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz made a note.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas that true?\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret whispered, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
That surprised me.<\/p>\n
Robert, whom Daniel had spent years trying to protect as the honorable founder of the business, had his own secrets.<\/p>\n
The false invoices inflated labor and equipment costs.<\/p>\n
Victor helped create them.<\/p>\n
Both men profited.<\/p>\n
Then Victor wanted more.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlackmail?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRobert called it that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the fire?\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret\u2019s hands began trembling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat evening Robert came home late.\u201d<\/p>\n
His shirt smelled of smoke.<\/p>\n
There was blood on one sleeve.<\/p>\n
He told Margaret the workshop was burning.<\/p>\n
Fire engines were already there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he say happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat he went back to talk to Victor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the fire?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two men fought.<\/p>\n
Physically.<\/p>\n
Robert struck Victor.<\/p>\n
Victor fell against a workbench.<\/p>\n
Robert believed he had injured him.<\/p>\n
Then a container of solvent spilled.<\/p>\n
Somehow a heater ignited the fumes.<\/p>\n
\u201cRobert started the fire?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said it was an accident.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he call emergency services?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Again.<\/p>\n
Another Bennett man.<\/p>\n
Another injured person.<\/p>\n
Another decision not to call.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ran.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret\u2019s voice broke.<\/p>\n
\u201cRobert ran home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to Victor?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought he died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho knew Robert had been there?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMark.\u201d<\/p>\n
I leaned forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe followed his father.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark saw Robert leave the workshop.<\/p>\n
He saw smoke.<\/p>\n
He saw enough to understand that Robert could be blamed.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Mark tell police?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, Mark helped Robert construct a story.<\/p>\n
Robert had been home.<\/p>\n
Mark confirmed it.<\/p>\n
Margaret confirmed it too.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou gave him an alibi.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about Daniel?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew there had been a fire. Nothing more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Laura?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz tapped the payment records.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen did Victor start receiving money?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy pay a dead man?\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he wasn\u2019t dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evan shifted.<\/p>\n
The remains found inside the workshop were not Victor.<\/p>\n
Victor contacted Robert three weeks after his supposed death.<\/p>\n
He had escaped through a rear door after Robert fled.<\/p>\n
The dead man was an undocumented laborer Victor had occasionally hired.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe let everyone think the body was his?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then he blackmailed Robert.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret nodded.<\/p>\n
Victor knew Robert had left him injured in a burning building.<\/p>\n
He knew about the false municipal invoices.<\/p>\n
He knew Mark had helped provide a false alibi.<\/p>\n
If Victor resurfaced, Robert could face fraud charges and possibly charges connected to the fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Robert paid him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t he go to police?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he was afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
That word again.<\/p>\n
I had begun to hate it.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Victor threaten the family?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot physically.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he threaten?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExposure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert paid.<\/p>\n
When Robert died, Mark inherited the secret.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Mark kept paying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Mark had signed statements supporting Robert\u2019s alibi. He was involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz opened Laura\u2019s records.<\/p>\n
\u201cPayments increased after Robert died.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictor demanded more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Daniel know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot until shortly before he died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did he discover it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMark used company money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel found the payments while tracing the gambling debts and shell-company transfers.<\/p>\n
At first, he thought Victor Shaw was another lender.<\/p>\n
Then he searched the name.<\/p>\n
He found the fire.<\/p>\n
He asked Margaret.<\/p>\n
She lied.<\/p>\n
Of course she did.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen did you finally tell him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree days before he died.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same conversation when she revealed Mark\u2019s history with Robert.<\/p>\n
Daniel had discovered decades of buried wrongdoing in a single week.<\/p>\n
No wonder he had hidden records everywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Daniel intend to do about Victor?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFind him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he?\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret looked toward me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
My pulse changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the night before Daniel died, he called me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he say?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018Victor isn\u2019t the problem anymore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz asked, \u201cDid he say anything else?\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said somebody else had been collecting the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room went quiet.<\/p>\n
Victor Shaw might truly have died sometime after the fire.<\/p>\n
Someone had taken over the blackmail arrangement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel didn\u2019t tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz began reviewing the most recent payments.<\/p>\n
They went to an account opened under a business name: V.S. Consulting.<\/p>\n
The registered mailing address was a commercial mailbox.<\/p>\n
But Daniel had written a note beside one transfer.<\/p>\n
Same handwriting as receipts?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat receipts?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Nobody knew.<\/p>\n
Evan suddenly leaned forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pharmacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
We looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalter\u2019s receipts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was writing on one.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked frustrated, trying to remember.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I bought his medicine, Walter had an old receipt in his wallet. He wrote a phone number on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhose number?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy does that matter?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Walter said somebody gave him the number after Dad died.\u201d<\/p>\n
My skin prickled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walter had never mentioned this.<\/p>\n
We returned to the hospital.<\/p>\n
He was awake, irritated by the food, and pleased to see Evan.<\/p>\n
Ruiz asked about the receipt.<\/p>\n
Walter frowned.<\/p>\n
Then remembered.<\/p>\n
After Daniel died, Walter tried several times to contact our family.<\/p>\n
One afternoon, outside the courthouse where he had gone seeking the officer from the crash, a woman approached him.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe knew my name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did she want?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo know what Daniel told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you tell her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDidn\u2019t like her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did she look like?\u201d<\/p>\n
Walter described a woman in her forties at the time.<\/p>\n
Blond hair.<\/p>\n
Thin.<\/p>\n
Well dressed.<\/p>\n
Not Helen.<\/p>\n
Not Margaret.<\/p>\n
Not Rachel.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe gave you a phone number?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSaid if I remembered anything, call.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you still have it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Walter laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lose shoes, not paper.\u201d<\/p>\n
From his wallet, he produced a worn receipt folded into quarters.<\/p>\n
The number was still legible.<\/p>\n
Ruiz photographed it.<\/p>\n
The handwriting caught my attention.<\/p>\n
Rounded numbers.<\/p>\n
A seven crossed through the middle.<\/p>\n
I had seen it recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cRachel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRachel writes sevens like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evan nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel had approached Walter after Daniel\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
But Walter\u2019s description of the woman did not match Rachel.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould she have written the number for somebody else?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz ran the phone number.<\/p>\n
It was disconnected.<\/p>\n
Historical subscriber records would take time.<\/p>\n
Walter added another detail.<\/p>\n
The woman had worn a company jacket.<\/p>\n
Not Daniel\u2019s company.<\/p>\n
A cleaning company.<\/p>\n
The name was partially visible.<\/p>\n
BrightWay.<\/p>\n
Ruiz searched business registrations.<\/p>\n
BrightWay Commercial Cleaning had operated in the county for eighteen years.<\/p>\n
Its owner was listed as Patricia Shaw.<\/p>\n
Shaw.<\/p>\n
Ruiz found the corporate filing.<\/p>\n
Patricia Shaw was Victor\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n
Victor had a child.<\/p>\n
Margaret looked genuinely shocked when told.<\/p>\n
She had never known.<\/p>\n
Patricia would have been seventeen at the time of the fire.<\/p>\n
She later married and used another surname socially, but maintained the cleaning company under Shaw.<\/p>\n
Her contracts included office buildings, municipal facilities, and\u2014until Daniel died\u2014the Bennett company.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had access to the office,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe could see records.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe could have taken over Victor\u2019s payments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPossibly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz contacted Patricia.<\/p>\n
No answer.<\/p>\n
Officers went to her registered address.<\/p>\n
The house was empty.<\/p>\n
A neighbor said Patricia had left several days earlier carrying suitcases.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore this investigation reopened?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
That meant she had known something was happening before police publicly moved against Mark.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz had no answer.<\/p>\n
Then her phone rang.<\/p>\n
An analyst had traced V.S. Consulting.<\/p>\n
The account receiving the recent payments had one additional authorized user.<\/p>\n
Rachel Pierce.<\/p>\n
I stared at Ruiz.<\/p>\n
Rachel was not merely helping Mark steal money.<\/p>\n
She had access to the account receiving the Bennett family\u2019s oldest blackmail payments.<\/p>\n
When confronted, Rachel changed her story again.<\/p>\n
She admitted knowing Patricia.<\/p>\n
They had been friends for years.<\/p>\n
Patricia had introduced Rachel to Mark.<\/p>\n
That was how Rachel got the office-manager job.<\/p>\n
Not by chance.<\/p>\n
Not through an advertisement.<\/p>\n
She had entered the Bennett company because Victor Shaw\u2019s daughter placed her there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did Patricia want?\u201d Ruiz asked her.<\/p>\n
Rachel finally answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cProof.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat Robert left her father to die.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Victor survived.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPatricia didn\u2019t know that at first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor returned secretly years later.<\/p>\n
He contacted Patricia when she was an adult.<\/p>\n
He told her what Robert had done.<\/p>\n
Then he disappeared again.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he die?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel nodded.<\/p>\n
According to Patricia, Victor died twelve years ago.<\/p>\n
Afterward Patricia continued collecting the payments.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlackmail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe called it restitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor twelve more years?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe hated the Bennetts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough to infiltrate their business?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough to hurt Daniel?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel\u2019s face changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz watched her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat aren\u2019t you telling us?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel looked toward the interview-room camera.<\/p>\n
Then whispered, \u201cDaniel found out who Patricia was.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day he died.\u201d<\/p>\n
My pulse pounded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe called her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe asked to meet him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe county road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel had not simply been driving home when Mark followed him.<\/p>\n
He had been heading toward a meeting with Patricia Shaw.<\/p>\n
The woman whose father Robert had left inside a burning building.<\/p>\n
And Rachel had known exactly where Daniel was going.<\/p>\n
Margaret arrived carrying no documents this time. She looked relieved by that. For once, there was nothing in her hands to hide behind. Ruiz placed Victor Shaw\u2019s photograph on the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28797,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28762\/revisions\/28797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}