Chapter 11 - Three Days Before the Crash
Maya could barely sleep.
Luke’s accident had always been simple.
Rain.
Late night.
A guardrail.
Police concluded he lost control.
No other vehicle identified.
Now nothing felt simple.
Samuel warned her.
“Do not assume murder.”
“I’m not.”
But she was afraid to say the word.
Investigators found the private investigator.
His name was Dennis Hale.
Retired police officer.
He admitted Rocky hired him to follow Luke.
“Why?”
Dennis hesitated.
“Rocky believed Luke had contacted the Avery estate.”
Maya’s heart pounded.
“Had he?”
“Yes.”
Maya stared.
Luke knew?
Not everything.
Dennis explained.
Three weeks before his death, Luke found one of Eleanor’s letters.
He began investigating quietly.
He called Thomas Avery’s estate office.
Asked whether Thomas had ever known Eleanor Bennett.
Rocky found out.
“How?”
“Luke told him.”
Of course.
Luke had trusted the man who raised him.
Dennis continued.
They argued.
Rocky hired Dennis to follow Luke and report who he met.
“Did Rocky tell you to hurt him?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Were you there the night he crashed?”
Dennis looked down.
“Yes.”
Maya went cold.
Dennis had been several cars behind Luke.
It was raining heavily.
Luke pulled onto a rural highway.
Another vehicle appeared behind him.
Black SUV.
Driving aggressively.
Close.
Too close.
Dennis lost sight around a curve.
Seconds later, Luke’s car struck the guardrail.
The SUV continued.
“Did you get the plate?”
“Partial.”
“Did you tell police?”
“I panicked.”
“Why?”
“Because the SUV belonged to a company connected to Rocky.”
Maya couldn’t breathe.
The vehicle was registered to Bennett Property Management.
Rocky’s company.
But Rocky claimed it had been stolen that evening.
No theft report was filed until the next morning.
Investigators reopened the crash.
GPS data had been deleted.
Vehicle logs were incomplete.
Then a mechanic remembered repairing damage on the SUV two days later.
Front bumper.
Passenger-side scrape.
Rocky told him it happened in a parking garage.
The mechanic had photographs.
Maya stared at them.
Black paint.
Silver transfer marks.
Luke’s car had been silver.
Still not proof.
But enough for a forensic comparison.
Rocky’s attorney stopped cooperating.
The SUV, investigators discovered, had been sold for parts eight months earlier.
Again—
after Luke died.
Again—
after Rocky learned Maya was asking questions.
Samuel looked grim.
“Someone wanted that vehicle gone.”
Maya sat silently.
For the first time, the DNA report no longer felt like the biggest secret.
Luke’s death might not have been an accident.
May you like
And if Rocky had anything to do with it—
the dog bowl had been only the smallest cruelty he was capable of.
