Chapter 4 - Diana’s LedgerDiana refused to speak for eleven hours.
Then investigators showed her the medical profile.
The chain receipt.
The camera footage.
The messages.
The three-million-dollar commission agreement.
Her attorney asked for a break.
Twenty minutes later, Diana wanted a deal.
Not morality.
Arithmetic.
She was willing to trade Vance for herself.
Diana explained the scheme.
Texas Gulf Infrastructure discovered contamination on the reservoir parcel six months earlier.
Industrial solvents from an abandoned tannery.
The state would never purchase the property if accurate testing became public.
Pendleton faced enormous losses.
Several county investors did too.
Vance agreed to manipulate evidence.
Diana controlled the HOA board whose easement vote was needed for reservoir access.
She wanted money.
Then Robert became a problem.
He had announced an internal evidence audit after several unrelated chain-of-custody errors.
The audit would expose replaced soil samples.
They needed him gone before Friday.
Diana suggested using Emma.
Robert nearly left the interview room when he heard that.
Catherine Ross stopped him.
“Let her finish.”
Diana continued.
She knew Robert’s greatest vulnerability.
Not corruption.
Not money.
His daughter.
“I never intended Emma to die.”
Robert looked through the observation glass.
The sentence made something burn inside him.
Diana added:
“I calculated twenty minutes.”
Calculated.
Emma’s suffering had been a number.
The plan:
Chain Emma.
Wait for Robert’s GPS to show him approaching.
Stand beside the porch.
Record him breaking the restraint.
Provoke him.
If Robert shoved Diana or threatened her—
release the video.
Internal Affairs immediately suspends him.
Vance conducts the audit.
Deal closes.
Simple.
Except Emma’s cardiac monitor alerted Robert earlier than expected.
He arrived before Diana had planned.
The heat exposure had already become dangerous.
And Emma’s camera survived.
Diana whispered:
“The child ruined everything.”
Catherine Ross leaned forward.
“No.”
“Your conspiracy ruined everything.”
Then she asked:
“Where is Vance?”
Diana hesitated.
“Pendelton’s ranch.”
“What ranch?”
“Outside Del Rio.”
Robert’s stomach dropped.
May you like
Forty miles from the Mexican border.
They were running.
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