Chapter 8 - KELSEY’S OFFER
I did not meet Kelsey alone.
I also did not tell her that.
Margaret arranged for Detective Alvarez to sit in an unmarked car across from the hotel while I entered the lobby wearing a recording device authorized under Ohio’s one-party consent law.
Margaret hated the plan.
Alvarez hated it more.
I hated that Kelsey had managed to make me leave Grace again.
The hotel was a mid-range business property near the airport.
The key card in the envelope opened Room 614.
I knocked anyway.
Kelsey opened the door wearing jeans, a gray sweatshirt, and no makeup.
I barely recognized her.
She looked younger than twenty-four.
She also looked terrified.
“You brought someone.”
“No.”
“That was the deal.”
“I’m here.”
She searched the hallway behind me.
“Come in.”
I stayed near the door.
Kelsey locked the deadbolt and shoved a chair beneath the handle.
“What are you doing?”
“Richard has people.”
I almost laughed.
“He has lawyers.”
“He has people who do what he says because he pays them.”
“You used to be one of them.”
Her face changed.
“That’s why I called you.”
She moved toward the small desk where a paper shopping bag sat beside a bottle of water.
“Do you have the dash card?”
“Not here.”
My anger rose immediately.
“Then I’m leaving.”
“Wait.”
“You dragged me out of the hospital with a lie?”
“I did not lie.”
“Where is it?”
“Somewhere Richard cannot get it.”
“Then tell the police.”
Kelsey laughed nervously.
“You think I haven’t considered that?”
“What do you want?”
There it was.
The question that mattered.
Her shoulders dropped slightly.
“Protection.”
“From Richard?”
“Yes.”
“Go to the police.”
“And tell them what?”
“The truth would be a start.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You think the truth makes me innocent?”
“No.”
That answer surprised her.
“I think the truth tells us what you did.”
Kelsey looked toward the dark hotel window.
“I signed Grayline paperwork before I married him.”
“I know.”
She turned sharply.
“How?”
“Daniel knew.”
The color left her face.
“What did he know?”
“That you were listed as a beneficial owner.”
Kelsey sat on the edge of the desk.
“He said he would find it.”
“Daniel talked to you?”
She nodded.
“When?”
“The night before he died.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“You spoke to my husband the night before the crash?”
“Yes.”
“About what?”
“Richard.”
My hands became cold.
“Start at the beginning.”
Kelsey pressed both palms against her knees.
“Richard met me at a charity event fourteen months ago.”
“I don’t care how you met.”
“You need to.”
I said nothing.
“He told me he was separated.”
“That has nothing to do with Daniel.”
“It has to do with how he gets people to agree before they understand what they agreed to.”
I stayed silent.
Kelsey continued.
“Grayline was supposed to be a side investment.”
“What kind of investment?”
“He said Hale-Mercer outsourced work and that he could route legitimate contracts through a vendor we owned.”
“That is self-dealing.”
“I know that now.”
“You were listed as an owner.”
“I signed papers.”
“You received money?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Her eyes dropped.
“About two hundred thousand.”
I felt disgust rise in my throat.
“And you thought that was normal?”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“I thought it was rich-people normal.”
I almost laughed at the stupidity of it.
Then I remembered she was twenty-three when it began and Richard had spent a lifetime convincing people that his version of normal was the only one that mattered.
That did not excuse her.
It did explain part of her.
“What changed?”
“Daniel.”
Kelsey reached into the shopping bag and pulled out a small digital recorder.
“He confronted me.”
“When?”
“Eight days before the crash.”
“Where?”
“At the house.”
“My house?”
“Richard’s.”
I had to remind myself she meant the house Richard had bought after marrying her.
“What did Daniel say?”
“He said he knew Grayline was fake.”
Kelsey swallowed.
“He said if I cooperated, he would try to keep me from being destroyed with Richard.”
“Why would he protect you?”
“He said he did not think I understood how deep it went when I signed the first papers.”
That sounded like Daniel.
It made me angry anyway.
“He did not tell me.”
“He said telling you would put you in the middle.”
“I was already in the middle.”
Kelsey looked at the carpet.
“I know.”
“What happened the night before he died?”
“He called me from his car.”
“Why?”
“He wanted proof that Richard ordered the fake maintenance invoices.”
“Did you have proof?”
“Yes.”
My heartbeat accelerated.
“What?”
“Texts.”
“Show me.”
Kelsey held up the recorder instead.
“I need something first.”
There it was again.
The transaction.
“What?”
“I want immunity.”
“I can’t give you immunity.”
“Margaret can arrange it.”
“No, she can’t.”
“Then get me a deal.”
“I am not the prosecutor.”
Kelsey’s fear turned into frustration.
“Richard will bury me.”
“He already tried to put a stolen house in your name.”
“I didn’t know it was your house.”
“You laughed while he threw me out of it.”
Her face tightened.
“I know.”
“You laughed while my water broke.”
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
She looked at me, and for the first time I saw shame instead of fear.
“I thought you were pretending.”
“What?”
“He told me you were dramatic.”
The words hit in a familiar place.
“He said you used pregnancy to control everyone.”
I stared at her.
“He told you that?”
“Yes.”
“And you believed him.”
“Yes.”
“At what point did you stop?”
Kelsey’s eyes filled, but she did not cry.
“When he told me I was going to say you fell.”
I did not move.
“He told me exactly what to say before the police came.”
“And you said it.”
“At first.”
“Then you changed your statement.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he looked at me the same way he looked at you.”
The room went quiet.
I understood that sentence better than I wanted to.
Kelsey placed the recorder on the desk between us.
“This has the call with Daniel.”
“You recorded him?”
“I recorded everything after I realized Richard was using my name on companies.”
“Why didn’t you go to police?”
“Because I was still spending the money.”
At least that answer was honest.
I picked up the recorder.
“Where is the dash card?”
“I’ll tell you after I have a lawyer and a written cooperation agreement.”
I set the recorder down again.
“Then we are done.”
Kelsey stepped in front of the door.
“Emily, wait.”
“Move.”
“There is something else.”
“Move.”
“Richard did go to the tow yard.”
I stopped.
Kelsey lowered her voice.
“I drove him.”
My skin prickled.
“After Daniel died?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
“He went into the truck.”
“For how long?”
“Maybe five minutes.”
“Did he have the dash card when he came back?”
Kelsey looked at me.
“Yes.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What happened to it?”
“He told me to destroy it.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because by then I knew I needed something he was afraid of.”
She was using evidence of Daniel’s death as insurance against my father.
The disgust on my face must have been obvious.
Kelsey flinched.
“I know how that sounds.”
“It sounds exactly like what it is.”
“He would have destroyed me.”
“So you kept the card and watched him destroy me instead.”
She had no answer.
I moved toward the door again.
Kelsey spoke quickly.
“Daniel’s call is on the recorder.”
“I heard you.”
“No, you did not hear the important part.”
I turned.
“What important part?”
She looked genuinely frightened now.
“Daniel knew Richard was in his office when Truck 317 was rerouted.”
“We know that.”
“No.”
Kelsey shook her head.
“He knew because Richard called him right after he changed it.”
My heart pounded.
“What did Richard say?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just said—”
“I know what Daniel told me afterward.”
She pointed at the recorder.
“Play file seven.”
I pressed the buttons with shaking fingers.
Daniel’s voice filled the room.
“Kelsey, if you are telling me the truth, send me the messages tonight.”
Her recorded voice answered.
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“He will know.”
“Then forward them to Margaret.”
“I don’t even know Margaret.”
“I’ll give you the address.”
There was a pause.
Then Daniel spoke again.
“Richard just called me about 317.”
My breath stopped.
Kelsey’s recorded voice asked what he wanted.
Daniel answered with a sentence that made my blood run cold.
“He said if I interfere with that truck one more time, I’ll regret choosing your wife over this family.”
The recording ended.
I looked at Kelsey.
“That was the night before?”
“Yes.”
“And you never gave Daniel the messages?”
Her eyes dropped.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Richard came home.”
“What did he do?”
Kelsey wrapped her arms around herself.
“He asked who I had been talking to.”
My phone vibrated inside my handbag.
I ignored it.
Kelsey continued.
“I lied.”
“What happened then?”
“He took my phone.”
“For how long?”
“Until the next morning.”
The next morning was the day Daniel died.
“What time did he give it back?”
“After lunch.”
My heartbeat stopped for a second.
Daniel’s collision happened at 12:19.
“After the crash?”
Kelsey nodded.
May you like
Then she said the one thing I had not expected.
“When he handed my phone back, all my messages with Daniel were gone.”
