Chapter 5
Victor knew I was coming for the truth.
Detective Cole found a computer inside his house.
Most files had been erased.
One survived.
It contained payments from Diane beginning eighteen years earlier.
The first payment was made two days before Mom died.
The final payment was made the morning Ryan struck me with the bat.
Diane had paid Victor to watch our house.
He knew I refused to sign the trust transfer.
He told Ryan where Dad was likely to enter.
The assault had not been planned as a sudden punishment.
They knew Dad might arrive.
They wanted him to witness enough violence to focus on saving me while Diane escaped with the documents.
Dad had ruined their plan by finding the papers first.
Victor contacted me through Grandma’s old email account.
I HAVE THE DASH CAMERA FROM CAROLINE’S CAR.
BRING ELEANOR’S COMPANY SHARES.
I sent the message to Cole.
She traced it to an abandoned repair shop.
The building was surrounded.
Victor was not there.
Instead, investigators found a live video feed.
Dad appeared on the screen inside his hospital room.
A man disguised as a nurse stood behind him.
Victor had entered the hospital again.
I called Dad.
He answered.
Before he could speak, Victor took the phone.
“You have an hour.”
“If you wanted the shares, you would have stayed at the lake estate.”
“I want something more valuable.”
“What?”
“My name cleared.”
Victor claimed Diane caused Mom’s crash.
He admitted damaging one brake line but said Caroline discovered it and repaired the car.
According to him, Diane followed Mom and forced her off the road.
The dashboard camera proved it.
“Why didn’t you go to police?”
“Because the recording also shows me working on the car.”
“You helped plan her murder.”
“I agreed to scare her.”
“You took money.”
“And Diane tried to kill me afterward.”
Victor wanted immunity.
I had no authority to offer it.
Detective Cole told him prosecutors would consider cooperation.
He demanded a signed agreement.
While attorneys negotiated, Dad kept Victor talking.
“You let your son believe you were dead,” Dad said.
“Ryan was safer without me.”
“No. He became Diane’s weapon.”
Victor’s expression changed.
He looked toward the hospital window.
A police sniper waited on the opposite roof.
Victor moved Dad into the hallway.
He wore a vest with wires attached.
A bomb.
Hospital staff evacuated patients.
I ignored orders and entered the building through the service stairs.
Cole followed.
We reached the fourth floor.
Victor stood behind Dad, holding a trigger.
“Stop,” he warned.
I raised my hands.
“I brought the agreement.”
“Slide it over.”
I placed the document on the floor.
He bent slightly.
Dad struck Victor’s arm.
The trigger fell.
Cole rushed forward.
I pulled Dad behind a wall.
The bomb squad restrained Victor and disabled the vest.
It contained no explosives.
Only wires and blocks of clay.
Victor had been bluffing.
Police recovered a key from his pocket.
It opened a storage box at the repair shop.
Inside was Mom’s dashboard camera.
The video showed Diane’s car following hers through the storm.
Victor’s voice came through a phone call.
“The brakes were repaired. Call it off.”
Diane answered.
“I didn’t spend eighteen years waiting to be rejected again.”
Her car struck Mom’s rear bumper.
Mom lost control and left the road.
Diane had murdered her own sister.
Victor had watched.
The evidence completed the case.
But Victor offered one final warning.
“Diane has a second copy of Eleanor’s trust.”
“A copy cannot override the original,” Olivia said.
“This one can.”
Victor explained that Grandma signed an earlier will leaving half her estate to Diane.
Diane planned to present it as the final document.
The witnesses were dead.
The lawyer who prepared it had disappeared.
“What lawyer?” I asked.
Victor answered with a name I knew.
May you like
Samuel Grant.
The judge currently handling Diane’s criminal case.
