Chapter 12 - The Last DeliveryGabriel's employer agreed to preserve the dispatch records and suspend the suspicious assignment while investigators examined the changes.
For his own safety, Gabriel would not drive the planned route. Any further use of the schedule would occur under the supervision of the authorities, with the safety arrangements kept confidential.
Candice did not know that the assignment had been suspended.
At least, there was no evidence she knew.
On Sunday morning, she called Gabriel.
He did not answer.
She called again.
Then she sent a message.
We need to talk before you ruin everything.
He showed the message to Evelyn and Ruiz.
They advised him not to respond until investigators had considered whether a communication might help establish Candice's next move. Eventually, a response was prepared and sent in a way that did not disclose his location or compromise the investigation.
Gabriel told Candice that he was willing to discuss their marriage but would not meet her alone.
Her reply came almost immediately.
I never wanted any of this to happen. You forced my hand.
He stared at the sentence.
He had heard variations of that excuse in the past eighteen months. When Lucas complained, Candice blamed his grief. When Gabriel questioned the household rules, she said he was undermining her authority. When Wyatt hurt Lucas, she called it a disagreement between boys.
Every cruelty had been made to sound like someone else's fault.
Now she was saying it again.
Investigators continued reviewing Wyatt's recordings. One contained a conversation between Candice and Darlene about the altered route.
Darlene spoke first.
“If he goes to the yard, we can finish this without him returning to the house.”
Candice answered, “What if he refuses?”
“Then we make sure he has nowhere else to go.”
A third voice joined them.
It belonged to an unidentified man.
“The transfer needs to happen before Monday afternoon. After that, the paperwork gets complicated.”
The recording ended before the discussion reached any specific action.
Ruiz warned Gabriel that the conversation was troubling but did not conclusively establish a plan to kill him. Investigators were working to identify the speaker and determine what the women meant by the transfer.
Gabriel understood the caution.
He also understood that he could not afford to ignore the possibility of danger.
Later that day, he received a call from Lucas.
“Dad?”
“I'm here.”
“Are they going to send me away?”
“No.”
Lucas was silent.
Gabriel leaned forward.
“I can't promise there won't be more questions or people asking you to tell them what happened. But nobody is going to send you to Haven Ridge based on a document you never agreed to. The authorities are examining the paperwork.”
“What if Candice says I'm lying?”
“Then we show them the evidence.”
Lucas breathed shakily.
“What if Wyatt tells them I started everything?”
“Then they will ask both of you questions, and they will look at what actually happened. You don't have to make your story bigger or smaller. You just have to tell the truth.”
“Do you believe me now?”
The question cut through Gabriel more sharply than any accusation.
“Yes,” he said. “I believe you.”
Lucas began to cry quietly.
Gabriel waited without interrupting.
“I should have believed you sooner,” he added. “I'm sorry.”
The boy did not immediately answer.
Then he whispered, “Okay.”
It was not forgiveness.
It was a beginning.
By Sunday evening, investigators had identified the unidentified voice on Wyatt's recording as a man connected to a logistics subcontractor. He had previously worked with a company that handled vehicle transfers and insurance inspections.
The connection was significant because the remote yard listed in the notebook belonged to a business associated with that subcontractor.
Investigators sought the records needed to examine the site, its access logs, and any communications connected to the planned transfer.
They also found evidence that someone had tried to access Gabriel's employer account using credentials that did not match his usual login pattern.
The attempt had failed, but it showed that the dispatch change might not have been a harmless mistake.
At nine thirty, Candice sent Gabriel another message.
Come home. We can settle this privately. No lawyers. No police. Just us.
Gabriel looked at Ruiz.
“She's desperate.”
“Maybe,” Ruiz replied. “Or she wants you to think she is. We still don't know what she knows about our investigation.”
“What should I say?”
“Nothing that commits you to meeting her alone. Nothing that threatens her. We won't use you as bait without careful planning, and we won't ask you to take risks we can avoid.”
They agreed on a controlled communication intended to learn whether Candice was seeking access to the house, the documents, or Gabriel himself.
Her response was revealing.
I don't care about the money. I only want the cup.
Gabriel stared at the message.
The silver cup had been taken into evidence after the hidden compartment was discovered. Candice had not mentioned it since their first confrontation.
Now she was demanding it.
He showed the message to Ruiz.
“Does she know what was inside?”
“We don't know,” Ruiz said. “But she may believe it contains something valuable, or she may know it carried the storage device.”
Gabriel thought about Clara's note.
For Lucas. When he's old enough to understand, let him choose what to do with the truth.
The truth had been hidden in a keepsake for years. Candice had kept the cup in her nightstand, apparently unaware of the concealed compartment or unable to open it.
If she had known what Clara had left inside, perhaps she would have searched more thoroughly.
Perhaps the folder in the wardrobe had been her attempt to gather everything else Clara's records might have revealed.
Gabriel could not be sure.
But now he understood why the silver cup mattered to Candice.
It was the one piece of the past she could not control.
At ten forty-five, dispatch called Gabriel's employer again to confirm that the remote-yard assignment had been canceled. The caller claimed the original schedule had been restored by mistake and insisted the yard transfer was still required.
The employer refused to authorize the change without written confirmation from a verified supervisor.
The caller ended the conversation.
Records of the call were preserved.
A few minutes later, Gabriel's phone rang.
This time, the number was not hidden.
Candice.
He answered on speaker with investigators present.
“Gabriel,” she said softly. “We need to stop this before people get hurt.”
“People have already been hurt.”
“I mean you.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
A long silence followed.
Then she said, “The cup. Give it back, and I'll tell you everything.”
“Everything about what?”
“Clara.”
Gabriel felt his heart beat harder.
“What did you do to Clara?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you afraid of what she left behind?”
Candice inhaled sharply.
“You don't understand what she started.”
“Explain it.”
“I can't do that over the phone.”
“Then explain it to the police.”
Her voice turned cold.
“You think they can protect you? They couldn't protect Richard Bell. They couldn't protect Denise Palmer. They couldn't even protect the children they sent away.”
The line went silent for a moment.
Then Gabriel heard a different voice in the background.
Darlene.
“Hang up, Candice.”
Candice lowered her voice.
“Please, Gabriel. You have to believe me. I didn't plan for Lucas to get hurt.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“But you knew he was being hurt.”
She didn't answer.
He continued.
“You knew he was washing clothes in the dark. You knew he was frightened. You knew those papers were being prepared in my name.”
“I was trying to keep everything from falling apart.”
“You were trying to keep control.”
Candice began to cry.
For one brief moment, Gabriel wondered whether any part of it was real.
Then she spoke again.
“If you keep going, you won't just lose me. You'll lose the truth about Clara, too.”
The call ended.
Gabriel looked at Ruiz.
“She just admitted she knew Lucas was being hurt.”
“She made a statement that may be relevant,” Ruiz said. “We'll preserve the recording and examine it in context. We still need to establish exactly what she knew and when.”
Outside, rain began tapping against the windows.
May you like
Monday morning was only hours away.
And someone had just tried, for the second time, to change Gabriel's route.
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