Chapter 6 - The Doctor Who Signed the Lie
Dr. Samuel Reed had retired four years earlier.
He had also signed Thomas Turner's death certificate.
Nicole and Monroe returned to the diner.
Reed sat alone in a booth.
Evelyn stood behind the counter.
Nobody spoke.
Nicole sat opposite him.
"Why are you here?"
"Because Harper talked."
"That worries you?"
"It frees me."
Nicole didn't react.
"Explain."
Reed had been called to Route 9 after midnight.
Thomas was already dead.
But Sheriff Harper instructed him to record an earlier time.
"Why?"
"To establish a timeline."
"For whom?"
"Wade."
Nicole leaned forward.
"Where was Wade supposed to be?"
"At a charity dinner until eleven-thirty."
An earlier death time gave him an alibi.
"Did Wade kill my father?"
"I don't know."
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"Because none of us saw it."
"Who did?"
Reed looked toward Evelyn.
"Your mother may know."
Nicole turned.
Evelyn looked stunned.
"I don't."
Reed shook his head.
"Tom called you."
"No."
"He did."
Evelyn's face changed.
Then she remembered.
"The voicemail."
Nicole stood.
"What voicemail?"
Her mother gripped the counter.
Thomas had called shortly before the crash.
Evelyn hadn't answered because she was asleep.
The message contained only background noise and Thomas saying:
"I found it."
Evelyn had deleted the voicemail after his funeral because hearing his voice was unbearable.
But the old phone still existed.
In a drawer at home.
Nicole retrieved it.
Digital forensic technicians recovered fragments.
Static.
Thomas breathing.
A car door.
Then his voice.
"I found it."
Another voice appeared faintly in the background.
Monroe enhanced the recording.
Three words became audible.
"Give me that."
Nicole recognized the voice.
Not Wade.
Not Travis.
Sheriff Harper listened and shook his head.
"Mayor Brooks."
Linda Brooks.
The mayor had been with Thomas.
Investigators located her two counties away.
She initially denied everything.
Then they played the recording.
Brooks broke.
She had met Thomas that night.
Not to hurt him.
To warn him.
She had been involved in Cain's property scheme for years, approving zoning requests in exchange for campaign support and money.
But the shipment records changed everything.
Northstar Transportation had been using county warehouses to hide fraudulent cargo manifests and move stolen commercial goods through legitimate supply chains.
Thomas discovered it.
Brooks panicked.
She begged him to give her the records.
He refused.
They argued.
Then Thomas left.
Alive.
"Who followed him?" Nicole asked.
Brooks cried.
"Travis."
Nicole went still.
Travis had been in his late twenties.
"Why?"
"Wade told him to get the documents."
"Did Wade tell him to kill my father?"
"No."
"You're sure?"
"I heard the call."
"What did Wade say?"
"Stop him. Get the folder. That's all."
Travis was found that evening.
He had been hiding at a hunting cabin owned by Cain Realty.
State investigators arrested him on charges connected to the assault on Evelyn and evidence uncovered during the investigation.
But Thomas's death remained unresolved.
During questioning, Travis admitted following Thomas.
He admitted forcing him to stop.
He admitted demanding the folder.
But he denied touching the truck.
"I scared him."
Nicole watched the recorded interview.
"I told him Dad would destroy the diner if he didn't stop."
Travis rubbed his face.
"He laughed at me."
"What happened next?" Monroe asked.
"He drove away."
"And you?"
"I called Dad."
"Then?"
"I went home."
"Thomas crashed fifteen minutes later."
"I didn't do it."
Nicole wanted to hate him simply.
It would have been easier.
But evidence mattered more than anger.
Pike's photographs proved sabotage.
They didn't prove who did it.
Then forensic accountants found a payment.
Three thousand dollars.
Cash withdrawal from Wade Cain's account two days before Thomas died.
The same amount appeared as a deposit into another person's account two days afterward.
The recipient was Raymond Pike.
Nicole stared at the record.
The mechanic.
The witness.
The man who had given her photographs.
Monroe issued a warrant.
They returned to Pike's house.
Empty.
In the garage, they found tools consistent with brake-line work.
But still no proof they had been used on Thomas's truck.
Then Nicole noticed a photograph on the wall.
Pike and Thomas.
Fishing.
Smiling.
Friends.
Why would Pike kill him?
They searched deeper.
A hidden box contained letters.
Wade had threatened Pike's daughter over a debt.
Pike had agreed to damage Thomas's truck.
But one letter changed everything.
I did what you asked, but I couldn't go through with it. I loosened the fitting, then tightened it again. Tom's truck was safe when it left my garage.
Nicole read it twice.
If Pike was telling the truth, someone had sabotaged the truck afterward.
The photographs were taken after the crash.
Pike had recognized work similar to his own.
But he hadn't done the final sabotage.
Who had access?
Nicole returned to the original police evidence inventory.
Thomas's truck had stopped at one place between Pike's garage and the crash.
A gas station.
The security footage was long gone.
But a handwritten witness statement remained.
A clerk had seen Thomas arguing with someone beside the truck.
The person's name had been blacked out.
Monroe used the original carbon copy.
The writing beneath the ink was faint.
But readable.
Nicole leaned closer.
Her heart stopped.
The name wasn't Wade Cain.
It wasn't Travis.
It wasn't Harper.
May you like
It was someone who had been sitting quietly inside Turner’s Family Diner almost every morning since Nicole came home.
And at that exact moment, Nicole realized the man was alone with her mother...
