Chapter 9
The renewed review answered one question before creating a larger one.
Elena’s crash remained an accident.
An independent reconstruction specialist examined the photographs, maintenance records, weather data, and original mechanical findings.
No credible evidence indicated sabotage.
No second vehicle.
No staged scene.
No evidence Corinne caused the crash.
Alistair felt relief.
Then guilt for feeling it.
Elena was still dead.
But the investigation was no longer about proving Corinne killed her.
It was about understanding why Corinne hid their final meeting.
Harbor House produced the nonprivileged administrative portions of Elena’s file.
The documents showed repeated appointments.
Not one.
Four.
Corinne coordinated all of them.
Elena had first contacted Harbor House seven weeks before her death.
The reason for service was coded:
Family separation planning / minor child safety / confidential housing consultation.
Alistair read the phrase until the words blurred.
Rebecca said nothing.
Another administrative note showed Elena had requested that all communication avoid the Montelli estate.
No calls to the house.
No physical mail.
No contact through family counsel.
She feared Alistair would learn before she was ready to speak to him.
The final appointment lasted more than two hours.
Corinne was present.
Then came the most damaging record for Corinne.
After Elena died, Corinne accessed the file again.
Not once.
Five times.
Over the following three months.
By then there was no active client to coordinate.
Harbor House had no legitimate reason recorded for the access.
Corinne had looked at Elena’s confidential file repeatedly after her death.
Then, ten months later, Corinne met Alistair at a Montelli Foundation fundraiser.
She introduced herself as though they were strangers connected only by charity work.
Alistair remembered that night vividly.
Corinne had known exactly how to speak to him.
She never pressured him about grief.
Never asked invasive questions about Elena.
She seemed unusually comfortable around Sadie.
At the time, he thought it was empathy.
Now another possibility existed.
She already knew the architecture of his family before she ever shook his hand.
Rebecca closed the folder.
“Tomorrow Harbor House is releasing the case-coordinator notes that Elena’s estate is legally entitled to receive.”
Alistair looked at her.
“And then?”
May you like
“Then we find out what your wife was planning.”
The next morning changed everything.
