Chapter 9 - The Man Who WatchedMarcus returned the following afternoon.
Arthur did not allow him into the house. They met in a conference room at his law firm, with Olivia Chen present and a written record of the interview.
I insisted on attending.
Maya refused.
“I can't listen to him explain why he let it happen,” she told me. “Not yet.”
I understood.
There were some wounds that could be examined only after the person carrying them had found enough strength to survive the examination.
Marcus sat opposite Arthur with both hands clasped between his knees. Without his expensive watch and immaculate suit jacket, he looked younger than I remembered.
He also looked terrified.
Arthur switched on the recording device.
“State your name.”
“Marcus Richard Vanguard.”
“And your relationship to Maya Hayes?”
“I'm her husband.”
“Did you witness the incident at the Vanguard residence on the night of October twelfth?”
Marcus swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Describe what happened.”
For several seconds, he stared at the table.
“My sister confronted Maya. They argued. Maya tried to leave the room.”
“Why were they arguing?”
Marcus rubbed his forehead.
“Maya had discovered financial records connected to the foundation. Celeste believed she'd copied confidential documents.”
“Had she?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know that before the confrontation?”
“No. I learned it that night.”
Arthur wrote something down.
“Continue.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“Celeste followed Maya onto the landing. Maya told her she wouldn't return the papers because she wanted an independent accountant to review them. Celeste grabbed her arm.”
“What happened next?”
“She pushed her.”
Olivia stopped writing.
Arthur did not move.
“Be precise, Mr. Vanguard.”
Marcus's voice dropped.
“My sister pushed Maya down the stairs.”
“Did Maya fall accidentally?”
“No.”
“Did she lose her balance before Celeste touched her?”
“No.”
“Did you intervene?”
Marcus looked at his hands.
“No.”
There it was.
Three simple questions.
Three answers that should have been obvious to any decent husband.
Arthur leaned back.
“Why didn't you help your wife?”
Marcus began crying.
He tried to hide it by pressing his fingers against his eyes, but his shoulders shook.
“Because I was afraid.”
I wanted to stand up and ask what kind of man watched his pregnant wife get hurt because he was afraid of upsetting his sister.
But Arthur raised one hand, stopping me before I spoke.
“Afraid of what?” he asked.
“Celeste has controlled everything in my life since we were children. My father gave her responsibility over the foundation when she was twenty-eight. She became the person who decided who got money, who got jobs, who was allowed into the family business.”
“You are a grown man.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you still letting her decide what kind of man you are?”
Marcus looked at him with red eyes.
“Because I have been letting her decide for so long that I don't know who I am without her approval.”
Arthur's face remained cold.
“That may explain your behavior. It does not excuse it.”
Marcus nodded.
“I know.”
He took a folded piece of paper from his pocket.
“This is the name of the person who manages the security system at the mansion.”
Arthur accepted it.
“Why are you giving us this?”
“Because Celeste told me to erase the footage.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Did you destroy the original recording?”
“I thought I had.”
Arthur placed a photograph of the staircase on the table.
Marcus looked at it and flinched.
“Who sent this to Maya?” Arthur asked.
“I don't know.”
“Did you know it existed?”
“No. But there was a backup system. The cameras recorded continuously to a remote server for thirty days. Celeste had the local recordings erased, but I don't know whether she contacted the company.”
Olivia made a note.
“What did you tell the security technician?”
“I said there had been a malfunction.”
“Was there?”
“No.”
Arthur paused the recording.
I stared at Marcus.
“You knew she was pregnant?”
He looked at me.
“Not until Celeste mentioned it.”
“And when did you find out?”
“When I heard Maya tell her she was eight weeks pregnant.”
I gripped the edge of the table.
“You heard your own child mentioned, and you still watched?”
Marcus began to speak, then stopped.
“I have no defense for that.”
“No,” I said. “You don't.”
Arthur restarted the recording.
“Did your sister threaten Maya?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Marcus took a trembling breath.
“She told Maya that she would never be accepted into the family. She said a child wouldn't change anything. Then she told Maya that if the baby were born, Maya would have a permanent reason to remain connected to us.”
“What does that mean?”
“My father has been pressuring me to take over part of the family business. Celeste believes Maya is a threat to her control. She thinks I will give my wife access to records, meetings, and information she would otherwise keep private.”
“Did Maya know that?”
“No.”
“Did your father know about the pregnancy?”
“I don't know.”
Arthur studied him.
“Did Richard Vanguard instruct you to delete the recordings?”
Marcus hesitated.
“My father told me to keep family matters private. Celeste told me to delete the footage. Afterward, my father called me and asked whether the incident had been contained.”
The room became very still.
“Contained?” Arthur repeated.
Marcus nodded.
“He used that word.”
“Did he ask whether Maya was alive?”
Marcus lowered his head.
“No.”
I felt a coldness that no amount of anger could warm.
Arthur ended the interview after another hour. Marcus had agreed to provide records, cooperate with the investigation, and preserve every communication he possessed relating to the incident.
None of that erased what he had done.
As he stood to leave, he looked at me.
“Mrs. Hayes, I loved Maya.”
I met his eyes.
“Then you should have protected her when protecting her cost you something.”
He had no reply.
After he left, Arthur placed the interview notes beside the blue ledger.
“We have a witness who admits he saw the assault,” he said. “We have a second image that may contain the original security data. We have financial records and a witness who can describe what happened twenty-two years ago.”
“Is that enough?”
“It's a beginning.”
He looked at me.
“But Marcus has given us something else. Richard knew about the incident immediately afterward.”
“Could that mean he helped cover it up?”
“It could. We need communications or financial records to establish what he knew and what he did.”
Olivia entered with a document from the forensic accountant.
“There's one more development,” she said.
She placed it on the table.
The document showed the payment to the private investigation firm that had assessed Maya's personal risk.
The firm had also investigated Nora Bellamy.
And twelve years earlier, it had investigated Daniel Hayes.
My father's name appeared three times.
The last entry was dated two days before his car crashed.
Arthur stared at the page.
Marcus had admitted that his father asked whether the incident had been contained.
Our father had died after investigating a previous pregnant woman who had died at the same mansion.
And now the company that had watched Maya had been watching our father, too.
May you like
The three events no longer looked like coincidences.
They looked like parts of the same plan.
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