Page 55 of You'll Never Know

“Paula said Adrian killed my family.”

“That’s never been proven.”

“Paula seemed pretty convinced.”

Zane nods. “She has good reason. The autopsy wasn’t conclusive, but the injuries Evelyn sustained were … questionable.”

“What do you mean?”

“Evelyn had significant head trauma to the right side of her skull, and her torso was twisted in a way that didn’t make sense. The impact should have been more direct. She had minimal damage to the center of her forehead, no burn marks.”

“Burn marks?” I ask, confused.

Zane grunts. “Airbags get hot when they inflate. There are chemicals released and sometimes fragments that can damage the skin. Evelyn didn’t have those. And her neck was fractured laterally.”

I set my elbows on the table. “Why does that matter?”

“It matters because it indicates she’d been looking to her left at the time of the crash instead of at the road—like she was talking to someone. Not to mention the position of the vehicle’s steering wheel was much too high for her, and her legs didn’t line up with the pedals.”

My shoulders tighten. “Okay. Give me your opinion. What do you think happened?”

Zane readjusts himself, his eyes never leaving mine. “I don’t think Evelyn was driving that day. There’s no way. I believe Adrian was theone behind the wheel.”

The room swims. If what he and Paula are telling me is true, I’ve spent the last two years hating the wrong person.

The waitress returns with our waters and takes our orders. A hamburger for Zane and a Caesar salad for me. I wait for her to leave before I speak again.

“If that’s true, then why wasn’t any of it in the police report? Why didn’t they investigate further?”

“They didn’t have a reason to. Evelyn was in the driver’s seat. She’d been drinking. They had a toxicology report that showed she was well over the legal limit at the time of her death. And there weren’t any witnesses. No one was around to question what happened.”

“Including Adrian?”

He nods in agreement. “Including Adrian.”

“Did the police look for him?” I ask.

“They did.”

“And they never found him?”

“No.” Zane takes another pull from his coffee and returns the mug to the table, then taps the file. “But it’s not entirely their fault. It’s hard to find a ghost. What else did Paula tell you about our friend here?”

I scratch my arm. “Not much. She said he took advantage of Evelyn, but she mostly talked about the accident.”

One of Zane’s eyebrows quirks higher. “Oh, he did much more than take advantage of her. He stole a couple million.”

I’m about to take a drink of water and nearly choke. I set the glass down. “Paula didn’t mention that.”

“Evelyn’s loss is a difficult subject for her. She doesn’t like talking about any of this.” He crosses his arms. “Let me ask you a question. What do you think killed Donald Nash?”

“A heart attack,” I reply.

“Go deeper.”

Paula’s voice whispers in my ear.He’s been dead for years.“The death of his daughter.”

“Yes. I’ve known Don for a long time. I worked a lot of corporate cases for him early in his career. He was one of the most focused individuals I’ve ever met. Calm. Cool. Levelheaded. That all changed when he hired me to investigate Adrian Wallace.”