Chapter 15 - Nathan's Lie
Nathan walked to the window.
“I argued with Dad that morning.”
Ethan said nothing.
Nathan continued.
Richard had discovered Nathan was gambling.
He owed almost two hundred thousand dollars.
At nineteen, terrified and ashamed, Nathan begged his father for money.
Richard refused.
Nathan screamed that he wished Richard would disappear.
Eleanor heard the argument.
“That’s what Sophie heard her talking about.”
Nathan turned around.
“I never asked Mom to hurt him.”
Claire believed his fear looked genuine.
Hale asked the obvious question.
“Did Eleanor pay your gambling debt?”
Nathan nodded.
“The day after Dad died.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Nathan’s voice broke.
“I thought she was helping me.”
Hale responded quietly.
“She may have been buying your silence.”
Forensic testing returned that evening.
Richard’s amended will was forged.
Ink dating showed the signature had been added after his death.
Eleanor had stolen control of the company.
Nathan had never known.
Ethan looked at his brother.
Years of suspicion began dissolving.
But another question remained.
Who physically sabotaged the boat?
Sophie remembered Margaret saying Eleanor changed the fuel line.
That seemed decisive.
Until Rosa arrived with something found in the chapel.
An old maintenance log.
Richard’s boat had been serviced the evening before his death.
The mechanic’s signature belonged to Thomas Reed.
Thomas Reed had died seven years ago.
But his son was alive.
Hale tracked him down.
Thomas’s son gave them a box of his father’s belongings.
Inside was a handwritten confession.
Thomas admitted he had damaged Richard Blackwood’s boat.
He had been paid $50,000.
The payment came from a shell company.
Samuel Price traced it.
The company belonged to Charles Vale.
Eleanor had not ordered Richard’s death.
Her father had.
Claire felt a strange mixture of relief and horror.
Eleanor was guilty of many things.
But perhaps not that.
Then Hale read the final paragraph.
Thomas wrote that Charles had not acted alone.
Someone had warned him that Richard planned to take evidence to federal authorities.
Only four people knew about Richard’s meeting.
Rebecca.
Richard’s attorney.
Eleanor.
And Anna Whitmore.
Everyone turned toward Anna.
Anna looked horrified.
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
But Hale had learned not to assume innocence.
He asked Anna where she had been the night before Richard died.
May you like
Anna’s answer stunned Claire.
“I was with Charles Vale.”
