Chapter 10 - The Road Claire Took
Detective Ortiz visited the accident reconstruction unit on a cold Wednesday morning.
The photographs of Claire's damaged vehicle were difficult to examine.
A silver sedan lay against a roadside barrier.
Its front end had been crushed.
The driver's side was severely damaged.
The original investigation had concluded that Claire lost control on a wet curve.
There was no identified second vehicle.
Now investigators were taking another look.
A specialist pointed to a series of marks along the passenger side.
“Some could be from the barrier,” he said. “But this area deserves further examination.”
“Can you prove another vehicle struck her?”
“Not from these photographs alone.”
Ortiz appreciated the answer.
She wasn't looking for someone willing to turn suspicions into facts.
She needed evidence that would survive a courtroom.
The original case files included one overlooked detail.
A passing delivery driver had reported seeing a dark SUV traveling close behind Claire's sedan shortly before the crash.
He couldn't identify its driver or license plate.
His statement hadn't been treated as evidence of a collision because he hadn't witnessed the crash itself.
Now it mattered.
So did Nina Bell's scheduling binder.
So did Graham Voss.
Investigators obtained records showing that a foundation SUV assigned to Graham had traveled through the East Ridge corridor that night.
The records didn't reveal everything that happened.
But they established that Graham's vehicle had been in the area, contradicting his original statement that he had driven directly home.
When Ortiz interviewed him, Graham insisted there was an innocent explanation.
“I was picking up equipment.”
“What equipment?”
“Office supplies.”
“From East Ridge?”
He shifted in his chair.
“I took a wrong turn.”
Ortiz placed a copy of the vehicle schedule before him.
“Then why did you write East Ridge as your destination?”
Graham stopped talking.
His attorney requested that the interview end.
The next afternoon, Ortiz received a call from the digital evidence unit.
The USB drive contained more than the audio recording.
A folder held financial spreadsheets, scanned invoices, and several notes Claire had created during the week before her death.
One note described a confrontation with Vanessa.
Another listed a scheduled meeting with an independent accountant at nine thirty on the night Claire died.
The meeting never happened.
The accountant confirmed she had been expecting Claire.
“She said she wanted to show me something before telling her husband,” the woman explained.
“Why before telling Adrian?”
“Because she thought the documents might disappear if Vanessa knew she had them.”
The investigators reconstructed the route Claire would likely have taken.
It passed through East Ridge.
Near the place where her car had crashed.
Ortiz returned to Maria's statement about the interrupted phone call.
A man had told Claire to pull over.
The voice hadn't sounded like Adrian.
Claire had been frightened.
Ortiz couldn't yet prove who spoke.
But the circumstances were no longer consistent with the simple story Adrian had been told.
At the end of the day, she called Rebecca Hall.
“Please ask Mr. Cole to preserve any messages, calendar records, or correspondence involving Claire, Vanessa, and Graham from the week before the accident.”
Rebecca agreed.
“Are you reopening Claire's death investigation?”
“We're formally reviewing it as a potentially criminal incident.”
After ending the call, Ortiz examined another document recovered from the drive.
It was a note Claire had written to herself.
Ask Graham why Vanessa needed access to my car.
For several seconds, Ortiz stared at the words.
Then she picked up the phone.
May you like
The garage was no longer simply a place where Graham worked.
It had become part of the investigation.
