CHAPTER 9: RACHEL WALKER RETURNS
The trust office occupied the top floor of a downtown bank.
Detective Ortiz contacted the bank manager and ordered him not to cancel the appointment.
If Diane believed the meeting was proceeding normally, she might appear.
Police officers dressed as employees.
Claire remained at the clinic under guard.
I waited in a surveillance room behind the conference area.
At 2:05 p.m., Aunt Linda entered.
She wore Claire’s coat, a dark wig and large sunglasses.
A medical mask covered the lower half of her face.
From a distance, she could have passed for my wife.
Linda presented identification in the name Rachel Walker.
The banker invited her into the conference room.
“Where is Diane?” Ortiz asked through Linda’s hidden microphone.
The banker began reviewing documents.
Linda’s hands shook.
She signed the first page.
Then the elevator opened.
Diane stepped out wearing a cream suit.
For the first time in my life, she looked old.
Not weak.
Not defeated.
Just stripped of the warmth she had always performed for others.
She carried a leather folder and smiled at the receptionist.
“I’m here as Ms. Walker’s financial adviser.”
Ortiz waited until Diane entered the conference room.
Then officers sealed the exits.
Diane noticed the cameras first.
Her smile vanished.
A detective stepped behind her.
“Diane Walker, you are under arrest.”
She did not run.
She looked directly toward the surveillance glass.
“I know you’re there, Ethan.”
I entered the room.
Diane’s eyes moved over my face.
“You chose them.”
“I chose the truth.”
“You chose a wife you’ve known for five years over your own mother.”
“I chose the woman who didn’t drug me, frame my father or let my sister die.”
Linda began crying.
Diane turned toward her.
“You were supposed to keep him away.”
“I’m done,” Linda whispered.
Diane laughed.
“You were never strong enough.”
Ortiz placed handcuffs around my mother’s wrists.
“Where is Thomas Walker?”
Diane looked at me.
“Your father made his decision.”
“What does that mean?”
“He wanted to confess.”
“To what?”
Diane leaned closer.
“To helping me move Rachel after the fall.”
My stomach dropped.
Thomas had said Rachel remained alive for six minutes.
Had they delayed calling the ambulance?
Diane continued.
“Your father could have saved her. Instead, he helped me protect the family.”
“You’re lying.”
“Ask him.”
Ortiz demanded Thomas’s location.
Diane refused.
A search of her folder revealed signed trust documents and a map.
One location had been circled.
An abandoned riverside warehouse.
Police units were sent immediately.
We found Thomas tied to a chair inside an office.
He was alive but severely dehydrated.
On a table beside him sat a video camera.
Diane had forced him to record a confession accepting responsibility for Rachel’s death.
The recording was incomplete.
Thomas had refused to finish it.
“She said she would hurt Claire’s baby,” he told me.
“You didn’t help her move Rachel, did you?”
Thomas looked away.
“I carried your sister upstairs.”
“Why?”
“Diane said the ambulance would arrive faster if we put Rachel near the front door.”
“Did it?”
His silence answered me.
Diane had made him move Rachel before calling emergency services.
Precious minutes had been lost.
Thomas had lived with that guilt ever since.
Police transported him to the hospital.
Diane was placed in county custody without bail.
It should have been the end.
Instead, the district attorney called Ortiz that night.
Dr. Vale had offered a deal.
He would testify against Diane in exchange for a reduced sentence.
There was one condition.
He wanted protection.
“From Diane?” I asked.
Ortiz shook her head.
“From someone else.”
Vale claimed Diane had not created the blackmail network.
She worked for the person who did.
May you like
The same person had controlled judges, doctors and investigators for decades.
And according to Vale, that person had already ordered Diane’s death.
