Then he answered softly.
“Yes. You have.”
Richard leaned forward.
Daniel continued.
“Laura discovered payments being moved from the East Millbrook housing rehabilitation fund into companies that were billing for materials they never delivered.”
“I know about Westbridge Supply.”
“Do you know who controlled it?”
Richard closed his eyes.
“Adrian?”
“Yes.”
His stomach tightened.
Adrian Cole.
His business partner.
The man who stood beside him at Laura's funeral.
The man who helped him choose her coffin.
The man who told him to focus on his children and let the business take care of itself.
Daniel continued.
“But Adrian wasn't working alone.”
Richard whispered, “Nicole.”
“Yes.”
He covered his mouth.
Daniel's voice lowered.
“Laura had discovered enough to expose both of them. She was preparing to speak with an attorney and turn over the original records.”
Richard stared toward the hallway where Laura's photographs had just been returned to the walls.
“Then why didn't she tell me?”
“She tried.”
The answer was immediate.
Richard stopped breathing.
Daniel continued.
“She told me she'd tried several times.”
His voice softened.
“She said you were exhausted. That you trusted Adrian. That someone had been giving you false information about our meetings.”
Richard's eyes filled.
He remembered Nicole showing him photographs of Laura and Daniel outside a restaurant.
He remembered the quiet suggestions.
The sympathetic questions.
The claim that Laura had become distant because there was another man.
Richard lowered his head.
“Oh, God.”
Daniel waited.
Then spoke again.
“Richard, there's something else.”
Richard slowly raised his eyes.
“What?”
“Laura called me on the evening she died.”
The words seemed to stop time.
Richard gripped the phone.
“When?”
“About forty minutes before the crash.”
His heart began pounding.
“What did she say?”
Daniel hesitated.
“She said somebody had sent her a message claiming you were waiting for her at the old Millbrook project office.”
Richard frowned.
“What?”
“She said the message was urgent.”
Richard stared.
“I wasn't at Millbrook that evening.”
“I know that now.”
Richard slowly stood.
The chair scraped against the floor.
He remembered that night.
November seventeenth.
Rain striking the windows.
He had been at the main construction office until nearly seven.
Adrian was with him.
They were reviewing subcontractor schedules for a hospital renovation.
At least, that was what Richard had always believed.
Then Nicole brought him coffee.
And told him Laura was probably meeting Daniel again.
Richard felt something cold spreading through his chest.
“Who sent the message?”
Daniel's voice became very quiet.
“According to Laura, it came from Nicole.”
Richard closed his eyes.
For a moment, he could not breathe.
Daniel continued.
“Laura thought you might finally be willing to discuss the evidence. She told me she wanted to go because she didn't want to lose her marriage over somebody else's theft.”