Chapter 5 - The Night Before the Bridge
Logan reached the security room within minutes.
Marcus replayed the footage.
Vanessa emerged from her suite.
A torn photograph sat partly visible beneath her shoe.
Marcus enlarged the image.
Logan recognized Elena instantly.
“When was that picture taken?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you recover it?”
“If it is still in the room.”
Logan stared at the screen.
“Do it.”
Nathan stopped him.
“We need to be careful.”
“She lives here.”
“She’s your fiancée.”
“Going through her belongings without proper documentation could complicate anything we discover.”
Logan hated that Nathan was right.
“Then find another way.”
Marcus brought up another recording.
“There's more.”
At 12:18 a.m., Vanessa had made a call from the balcony.
The exterior camera had no clear audio.
But the security system recorded the number.
Nathan wrote it down.
“I’ll have someone trace it.”
Logan returned to the library.
Marina was awake.
Noah slept beside her.
She looked at Logan’s expression.
“You found something.”
“A photograph.”
“Of what?”
“You.”
Marina went pale.
“Vanessa had it hidden.”
Marina stared toward the dark windows.
A memory surfaced.
A summer afternoon.
Blackwater Lake sparkling beyond a wooden dock.
Baby Noah laughing beneath a yellow blanket.
Vanessa approaching with two glasses of lemonade.
“You look tired.”
The memory sharpened.
Elena refusing the drink.
Vanessa smiling.
Then another scene.
Three nights later.
Vanessa calling.
Crying.
Saying Logan had been hurt.
Telling Elena to meet her near Blackwater Bridge.
Marina gasped.
“I was driving.”
Logan crouched beside her.
“What?”
“That night.”
Her breath quickened.
“I was driving somewhere.”
“Where?”
“To you.”
Logan felt his stomach drop.
“I wasn’t anywhere near Blackwater.”
Marina stared at him.
“She told me you were hurt.”
“Who?”
Marina’s eyes moved toward the ceiling.
“Vanessa.”
Logan closed his eyes.
The memories came faster.
Rain beating against the windshield.
Vanessa sitting in the passenger seat.
Arguing.
Elena demanding to know where Logan was.
Vanessa taking the steering wheel.
The vehicle swerving.
A truck horn.
Metal screaming.
Then darkness.
Marina pressed both hands against her head.
“She was in the car.”
Logan stood.
Police records had listed Elena as the only known occupant.
No second person had ever been mentioned.
“She was with me.”
Marina whispered.
“I remember her screaming.”
Logan immediately called Nathan.
“I need the original accident report.”
“Not the insurance summary.”
“The first responding officer’s report.”
Nathan answered five minutes later.
His voice was grim.
“There’s a problem.”
“What?”
“The first report mentioned two sets of footprints near the bridge.”
Logan became very still.
“What happened to that detail?”
“It disappeared from the final report.”
“Who signed the revision?”
Nathan paused.
“Detective Harrison Vale.”
Logan knew that name.
May you like
Everyone in their circle did.
Harrison Vale was Vanessa Cruz’s uncle.
