“Why did you order the captain and crew below deck?”
“I did not.”
“Captain Elias says you reported a fuel smell near the engine room.”
“There was a smell.”
“There was no leak.”
“I was being cautious.”
“Mateo says you blocked him from reaching the rescue equipment.”
Grant pointed at the deckhand through the hospital room window.
Mateo stood in the corridor giving his statement, still wearing damp uniform trousers.
“He misunderstood.
Everyone was panicking.”
“I wasn’t,” I said.
Grant turned toward me.
“No,” I continued.
“You were very calm.”
Vanessa suddenly pulled the necklace over her head and dropped it onto a chair.
“I did not know he was going to push her,” she said.
Grant stared at her.
“Be quiet.”
The detectives looked at Vanessa.
She began speaking faster.
“He told me he was going to frighten her.
That was all.
He said she would agree to a divorce if she thought he had proof she was unstable.”
“That is a lie,” Grant snapped.
Vanessa’s mouth fell open.
He pointed at her as though he had made a decision.
“She pushed Clara.”
The room went still.
Vanessa looked at him with naked disbelief.
“I was ten feet away.”
“You were jealous.
You wanted Clara gone.”
“You told me she would be gone before sunset.”
Grant’s face drained of color.
The younger detective stepped closer.
“When did he tell you that?”
Vanessa realized what she had said.
She looked at the door, then at the two officers standing outside it.
Finally, she looked at Grant.
He had already sacrificed her.
Something hard settled behind her eyes.
Vanessa reached into her handbag and removed a small digital recorder.
“I kept this because I did not trust him,” she whispered.
Grant lunged.
The older detective caught his arm and drove him against the wall before he reached her.
A second officer entered and secured his wrists.
Grant shouted that the recording was illegal, edited, meaningless.
He demanded his attorney.
He demanded that Helen leave.
He demanded that I tell the police the truth.
For years, Grant had controlled rooms by raising his voice until everyone else became smaller.
That afternoon, no one moved for him.
Vanessa handed the recorder to the detective.
It contained three conversations with Grant.
In the first, he described the old will and estimated how quickly the estate could be settled if my body was recovered.
