Chapter 10 - Anna’s Secret
Anna did not run.
She cried when confronted.
Then asked for attorney.
Rachel felt physically sick.
Anna had been person who rushed to Sophie.
Held her.
Protected her.
Could she also have engineered event?
Anna admitted buying prepaid card.
But not for herself.
Vanessa had asked her to.
Three months earlier.
Vanessa said she needed anonymous phone for private communication with former employer.
Anna bought card because Vanessa reimbursed cash.
That connected Vanessa herself to blackmail account funding.
Vanessa denied knowing card used for that account.
Receipts and timing supported possibility someone else acquired card after purchase.
Anna gave it to Vanessa unopened.
Vanessa claimed she placed it in desk drawer.
Drawer accessible to household staff.
Ethan’s mansion employed nine people.
Only four main figures had been in nursery, but broader investigation now included staff.
Detective Grant avoided accusing randomly.
Fingerprints on card packaging long gone.
Account login locations masked.
Then Anna remembered seeing someone inside Vanessa’s study.
A week before incident.
Ethan’s family-office manager:
Peter Lang.
Peter handled bills, staff contracts and Claire’s estate administration.
He had keys everywhere.
Ethan trusted him for twelve years.
Peter denied taking card.
Search of office revealed nothing.
But estate files revealed something important.
Peter had administered Claire’s Northstar settlement correspondence.
He knew Vanessa received $48,000.
He knew Claire refused settlement.
He knew Claire’s original compliance files might still exist.
And he had been quietly billing Bennett estate for “Northstar document preservation.”
Total:
$72,000 over eleven months.
Ethan never specifically approved.
Invoices buried within legal-administration expenses.
Peter claimed David Mercer instructed work.
Mercer denied.
Now motive appeared financial.
Peter had been charging for fake work.
If Northstar matter officially closed, billing stopped.
But reopening it also risked exposure.
Why orchestrate USB discovery?
Maybe he didn't.
Then USB contained invoices.
Daniel had added them after discovering suspicious payments.
So USB threatened Peter too.
Whoever blackmailed Vanessa might not know USB contained invoices.
Different people had contributed files for different reasons.
Again no single mastermind necessarily controlled everything.
Then security camera hardware yielded breakthrough.
Although nine minutes missing from main recording, camera retained low-resolution diagnostic snapshots every thirty seconds.
Vanessa did not know.
Snapshots showed sequence.
7:42 Vanessa entered with iron.
7:44 Vanessa looked repeatedly toward camera.
7:45 Rachel approached hallway.
7:46 iron incident.
7:47 Ethan entered.
Most important:
7:43 Vanessa held phone.
Screen enlarged.
Message:
DO IT NOW. CAMERA IS RECORDING.
Sender displayed only initials:
C.B.
Ethan stared.
Claire Bennett?
Impossible.
Service account?
Maybe.
Then forensic recovery revealed contact had been manually saved by Vanessa.
C.B. stood for:
CHARLES BENNETT.
Ethan went silent.
“My father.”
Charles Bennett was seventy-one.
Retired.
Living in Connecticut.
May you like
Sophie’s grandfather.
And according to Ethan, Charles had never even met Vanessa.
