Chapter 10 - THE PERSON WHO WANTED VICTOR TO PANIC
The anonymous email came from a privacy service. No easy IP.
No magic hacker reveal. Investigators used payment records, provider logs where available, and device timelines.
Slow. Then one clue.
The attached photograph of the blue file had metadata stripped, but the image itself reflected a partial face in a metal toolbox. Mara enlarged it.
Not enough for facial identification. But clothing.
A red maintenance jacket. Who wore one?
A local handyman service Victor hired occasionally. Three employees.
One was Daniel Price's nephew. I stared.
Daniel denied involvement. His nephew, Cole Price, worked for the service.
Did Daniel send him? "No."
Cole lawyered up. Then admitted he had entered Victor's workshop six months earlier to repair an electrical outlet.
He saw the loose floorboard because Victor moved it. Later Daniel told him Victor might be hiding documents.
Cole returned without permission. Trespassing.
Photographed the blue file. Did not take it.
Then sent the photo to Daniel. Daniel sent it to Aunt Ruth? Impossible, she was dead. To George.
George held it. Then who emailed Victor? George. He admitted.
Why? He wanted to scare Victor into moving the file somewhere accessible.
That was reckless. "And you didn't tell Mara?" I asked. "No." "Why?"
"Because I knew she'd stop me." Exactly.
George had triggered the escalation that led to the grave. Not intentionally. But foreseeably? Maybe.
My anger became physical. "You almost got Mom killed."
George cried. "I thought he would move papers, not hurt Linda."
"You knew what he was." "I knew what he did financially."
"You knew he threatened her in 1998." Silence. Then: "Yes." There.
George wanted evidence badly enough to gamble with someone else's safety. Same family pattern wearing a different moral costume.
Use a person as leverage. He thought his goal was good.
Victor thought his goals were justified too. That terrified me.
Then Mara tore into him professionally. No cooperation games.
No unsupervised contact with witnesses. Every future communication through counsel.
His credibility now more damaged. But the anonymous email itself became evidence of why Victor suddenly escalated.
Then Victor's defense learned about George. Of course.
They argued the grave confrontation had been manufactured by a vigilante relative trying to provoke criminal conduct. Could that work?
Maybe partly with a jury. George did provoke panic.
But nobody forced Victor to confine Mom, kick, slap, threaten, or dig a grave. Still, defense would use it.
Then Mom became furious with me. Not George.
Me. "You brought all these people into it."
I stared. "Excuse me?"
"If you'd come to me first—" "I tried for eleven months." She looked away.
Then: "I should have handled Victor." That sentence scared me.
She still believed the problem was she failed to manage him correctly. Not that he had no right to manage her. We fought. Loud.
Hospital conference room. Then Mom said: "You don't understand marriage."
I laughed. "No. Maybe I understand captivity."
Too harsh. She flinched.
I regretted it. Then she said: "I stayed because I thought I could get the money back for you."
There. She had remained under Victor's control partly because of my trust.
Again. Using herself as collateral for me. Protective. Self-destructive.
Then I said: "I don't want money that costs me you." Mom began crying.
That was the first time the trust stopped being a financial case and became what Aunt Ruth intended it to be. Protection.
But protection had become another reason people made decisions for me. Ruth. Mom. George.
Everyone claimed to act for Rachel. Nobody asked Rachel.
Then I made a rule. "No more secret plans with my name on them."
Mara nodded. Celia nodded.
Mom eventually nodded. George was not in the room.
Good. Then the search of Victor's financial devices produced one new file. Not blue. Black.
A spreadsheet named EXIT COSTS. Rows: LINDA. RACHEL. DIANE. CALVIN. GEORGE.
Each person had a dollar amount beside their name. Victor had calculated what it would cost to silence, settle with, discredit, or financially pressure every person around him.
Beside my name: $75K + TRUST RELEASE. Beside Mom: MOTEL + MEDS + CONTROL.
Beside Diane: 25% PROCEEDS. Beside Calvin: OLD FILES.
Beside George: TAX. People reduced to leverage.
Then one row at the bottom: MARA COLE. No dollar amount.
May you like
Just: FIND WHO HIRED HER. Victor had known about my investigator before the grave.
He had been investigating us back.
