Chapter 14 - THE ROAD TO ROUTE 47
Nathan was eleven miles from Olivia's crash when it happened.
Cell-tower records confirmed it.
He didn't deny that either.
"I'm done lying," he said.
We sat across from each other in Detective Reed's interview room.
Nathan explained that after Olivia told him about the federal meeting, he panicked.
He asked her to wait forty-eight hours.
She refused.
They argued.
He drove toward her office to speak in person.
She had already left.
"Did you follow her?"
"No."
"Then why were you near Route 47?"
"My apartment was that direction."
He had lived there at the time.
Reed verified the address.
Possible.
Not exonerating.
Nathan's outgoing calls showed three attempts to reach Olivia.
Then one call to Charles.
At 8:19.
Ten minutes before the crash.
"What did you tell Charles?" I asked.
"That Olivia was going federal."
The room went silent.
Nathan's face collapsed.
"I didn't know."
"You handed them the information."
"I thought Charles would call Dad."
Instead, Charles called Vanessa.
Phone records confirmed a two-minute call beginning at 8:22.
Then Vanessa's phone went dark for forty-six minutes.
She later told investigators her battery had died.
Reed leaned forward.
"Where was Vanessa that night?"
Nathan shook his head.
"I don't know."
I did.
Or thought I did.
Vanessa had once told me she spent that evening at a fundraiser in Richmond.
Reed checked the old event photographs.
Vanessa appeared in one image at 7:15.
None after.
Route 47 was forty minutes away.
Still not proof.
Then the original crash report delivered another change.
Olivia's phone had been found under the passenger seat.
Screen cracked.
No fingerprints suitable for comparison beyond Olivia's.
Her 7:52 cancellation had been entered before the crash.
Vanessa did not need to touch the phone after impact.
She only needed access earlier.
Reed reopened the digital extraction from the phone.
The cancellation message had been typed manually.
No biometric log remained.
But the phone had connected to a Wi-Fi network at 7:48.
Vantage-Guest.
The network belonged to Vantage Meridian's former office.
Olivia had been there less than an hour before she died.
She had never told anyone.
That was the major payoff.
Olivia did not go directly home after work.
She went to confront somebody at Vantage.
Nathan looked at me.
"Vanessa."
"Maybe."
Reed raised one hand.
"Don't jump ahead."
He was right.
The building's old security contractor had gone out of business, and the footage was long gone.
But property access logs survived.
At 7:41 p.m., Olivia's badge entered.
At 7:44, Vanessa Hale's temporary credential entered.
At 8:03, Olivia exited.
Vanessa's credential never recorded an exit.
Not because she stayed inside.
Because somebody had disabled the reader at 8:05.
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The administrator account that disabled it belonged to Charles Welles.
📖 I thought we had finally cornered Charles, but his explanation revealed the first serious mistake Olivia herself made that night. 👇
