Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN BEFORE ME
I didn’t sleep that night.
Every memory of Vanessa replayed differently.
Our first coffee.
Our first date.
The first time she met Lily.
“I’ve always loved kids,” she had said.
Had any of it been real?
Detective Cole warned me not to jump ahead.
“A photograph proves proximity, not murder.”
“She lied about knowing Rachel.”
“Yes.”
“That matters.”
“It does.”
The key labeled D-214 turned out to belong to a storage facility twenty minutes away.
Unit D-214.
Rented under a fake name.
Paid in cash.
Surveillance records showed Vanessa visiting it regularly.
Police obtained a warrant.
Cole let me know when they opened the unit.
He wouldn’t let me inside.
But later, he showed me photographs.
Boxes.
Dozens of them.
Inside were clothes.
Documents.
Photos.
Newspaper clippings.
One entire plastic bin contained articles about Rachel’s crash.
Another contained pictures of me.
Before I had ever met Vanessa.
Me pushing Lily in a stroller.
Me leaving work.
Me walking into my parents’ house.
I felt sick.
“She was watching me.”
“For months,” Cole said.
“Why?”
“We’re still trying to determine that.”
Then he showed me a photograph taken from inside the storage unit.
My wedding picture.
Not my wedding to Vanessa.
My wedding to Rachel.
Across Rachel’s face, someone had drawn a thick red X.
Cole placed another item on the table.
A hospital ID card.
VANESSA BLAKE.
St. Matthew’s Medical Center.
The same hospital where Rachel worked.
Vanessa hadn’t worked at a different hospital.
She had worked with my wife.
I called Rachel’s old supervisor.
Dr. Evelyn Shaw remembered Vanessa immediately.
“She was in billing. Why?”
“Did she know Rachel?”
Silence.
“Dr. Shaw?”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
“Not well, at first.”
“At first?”
Another pause.
“Ryan, I’m surprised you’re asking me this.”
“Why?”
“Because Vanessa was the reason Rachel filed a workplace complaint.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“What complaint?”
“Harassment.”
I couldn’t speak.
Dr. Shaw continued.
“Vanessa became... fixated on her.”
“Fixated how?”
“She asked personal questions. About you. Your marriage. Where you lived. Eventually Rachel became uncomfortable.”
“Why didn’t Rachel tell me?”
“She may have.”
I started to say no.
Then I remembered.
Three months before the crash, Rachel had mentioned someone at work being “weird.”
I had been answering emails.
Half listening.
She said a woman kept copying her clothes.
Showing up to lunch at the same time.
Asking about our weekend plans.
I had joked that Rachel had a fan.
I wanted to punch myself.
“What happened after the complaint?” I asked.
“Vanessa resigned.”
“When?”
“About five weeks before Rachel died.”
My phone buzzed.
Detective Cole.
I switched calls.
“What did you find?”
“Ryan, where is Lily?”
“With my sister.”
“Get there immediately.”
My heart jumped.
“Why?”
“We recovered messages from the prepaid phone.”
“And?”
“One was sent ten minutes ago.”
I stood up.
“That phone is in police custody.”
“Not that phone.”
Cole’s voice became harder.
“There were two prepaid phones.”
A text had been sent to my sister’s number.
Only four words.
GIVE ME MY GIRL.
I ran for the door.
Then Cole said:
“Ryan, we just checked the county jail.”
My hand froze on the doorknob.
May you like
“Vanessa was released on bond forty minutes ago.”
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