Chapter 14 - THE LAST WEEK
We rebuilt Laura’s final week hour by hour.
Not perfectly.
Enough.
Monday: Laura emailed Rachel asking to update the protective filing.
Tuesday: she visited Bellmere and recorded the confrontation.
Wednesday: she called Daniel and demanded full Northcrest records.
Thursday: she told Anna she needed to “tell Ethan something ugly after the weekend.”
Anna had forgotten the exact wording until Rachel showed her the calendar.
Friday: Corinne purchased a prepaid phone.
Saturday: Laura sent the certified letter.
Sunday: Laura died.
The prepaid phone purchase mattered.
Evelyn later used a prepaid number too.
But store records showed Corinne herself bought one two days before the crash.
Different number.
Why?
Carrier logs showed three calls.
One to Daniel.
One to Laura.
One to a private investigator named Malcolm Reed.
I knew him.
That hurt.
Malcolm had once done corporate security work for me.
Not recently.
Years earlier.
Rachel tracked him down.
He agreed to speak after consulting counsel.
Corinne had hired him to learn my schedule.
Not after Laura died.
Before.
“What exactly did she want?” I asked.
“Where you worked. Travel. Routine. Whether you were usually with Laura.”
“Why?”
“She said she needed to deliver sensitive evidence directly to you.”
Leverage.
Again.
“Did you ever give her access to my home?”
“No.”
“Laura’s car?”
“No.”
“Her location?”
Malcolm hesitated.
“I told her Laura was at Bellmere that Saturday.”
My stomach tightened.
“How did you know?”
“I’d seen her vehicle there while doing surveillance.”
“You surveilled my wife?”
He looked ashamed.
“I was paid to observe whether she met with Daniel Vale or attorneys.”
By Corinne.
That meant Corinne knew Laura was at Bellmere on the day of the crash.
Did she follow her from there?
Traffic data said likely.
Malcolm remembered another request.
Corinne asked whether Laura’s SUV had a dashcam.
He told her he didn’t know.
Why ask?
Corinne claimed she feared Laura was recording meetings.
She was right.
Laura recorded everything.
Then Malcolm gave us the failure that kept the story grounded.
He did not see the crash.
Did not see Corinne collide with Laura.
Did not know Laura’s phone existed.
No omniscient witness.
No magical solve.
The best he could do was place Corinne’s interest around Laura’s location and recording habits.
Meanwhile, Corinne’s public counterattack intensified.
She filed for divorce before I could.
Alleged cruelty.
Claimed my slap demonstrated dangerous temperament.
Requested access to the mansion and temporary spousal support.
Rachel warned me not to underestimate it.
“She’s creating a parallel story.”
“She hurt Maisie.”
“And your evidence supports that. But family court will still look at your conduct.”
I hated fairness when it applied to me.
That was exactly why I needed it.
I agreed to a no-contact structure except through counsel.
No direct messages.
No angry confrontations.
No giving Corinne what she expected from me.
Then the investigation produced the strongest physical lead yet.
Old traffic cameras showed Corinne’s Range Rover entering the Bellmere road at 5:17 p.m.
Laura’s SUV left at 5:24.
Corinne left at 5:25.
One minute.
Not coincidence.
She had been at Bellmere.
May you like
She had lied about that too.
📖 The reconstructed final week proved Corinne hired surveillance before Laura died and followed her out of Bellmere within a minute, but the case still needed to show what happened after they reached the road. 👇
