Chapter 4 - Playing Dead In The Dark
By five in the morning, the local news began rolling across the bottom of the screens Tobias had set up.
A high-profile search and rescue operation was underway near the Savannah Creek Bridge. A submerged luxury SUV had been spotted by a morning tugboat crew. The emergency response teams were preparing to hoist the vehicle from the riverbed.
""Garrett called the police at four fifteen,"" Tobias noted, watching a dispatch feed scrolling through a secondary monitor. ""He claimed he fell asleep at the wheel, managed to break his window as the car hit the water, but was dragged away by the current and couldn't get back to his wife and brother-in-law. He played the hysterical, grief-stricken husband perfectly. The dispatch log says he was taken to the hospital for mild hypothermia and shock.""
""What happens when they pull the car up and find no bodies?"" I asked.
""They won't find empty space,"" Tobias said with a grim smirk. ""Before I dragged you through that door, I jammed two heavy bags of industrial sand from the trunk into our seat positions, secured beneath the blankets you always kept in the back. In eighty feet of muddy water with zero visibility, divers report what they feel. And the river current at that bend moves at seven knots. The current assumption will be that our bodies were swept through the blown-out rear window and out toward the Atlantic basin.""
He turned to me, his gaze fierce. ""For the next six hours, Rosalind, you and I do not exist. We are fish food. We are tragic casualties of an unfortunate midnight accident. That is the only reason Garrett will walk into that boardroom today with his guard completely down.""
Tobias opened a steel wardrobe standing in the corner of the cellar. Inside hung two complete sets of high-end business attire: a bespoke black suit tailored for him, and a charcoal-grey tailored dress with a matching blazer designed for me.
""You had clothes made for me?""
""I had them made six months ago,"" he said quietly. ""Because I knew this day would come. I just didn't know if I would be saving you from a poison-induced stroke or a cold-blooded murder attempt. I'm sorry I waited so long, Rosalind. I wanted to gather enough financial evidence to put him away for life without putting you in harm's way. I underestimated how desperate he had become.""
""You didn't fail me, Tobias,"" I said, touching his arm. For fifteen years, I had mourned the athletic, brilliant brother who had been broken on a rainy highway. Seeing him stand before me, his mind razor-sharp, his resolve unbreakable, filled me with a sudden, profound strength. ""You saved my life twice. Now let’s take back what belongs to our parents.""
Between six and eight in the morning, Tobias took me through every detail of his fifteen-year investigation.
He didn't just have evidence of Garrett’s poisoning or Penelope’s collusion. He had tracked every illegal transaction made through Vance Marine over the past ten years. He had records of kickbacks paid to county inspectors, bribes slipped to maritime union bosses, and, most damning of all, the wire transfers from Richard Vance’s estate to the corrupt mechanic who had cut the brake lines on our parents' car fifteen years ago.
The entire Vance legacy was built on murder, fraud, and extortion. And Garrett had brought every single document, every single liability, directly into our family’s jurisdiction when he married me.
""At nine thirty, Garrett will walk into the Savannah Creek Shipyard administrative building,"" Tobias explained, spreading out the corporate bylaws on the desk. ""Under Article Nine, Section Four, an emergency board meeting requires all executive shareholders to be present or accounted for. Garrett will present a provisional certificate of disappearance issued by his friendly judge, claiming emergency authority to sign the naval contract before the noon deadline.""
""Who is running the meeting?"" I asked.
""Marcus Sterling,"" Tobias replied.
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A wave of relief washed over me. Marcus was our father’s oldest friend and the only board member who had consistently refused Garrett’s attempts to restructure the company’s executive leadership.
""Marcus knows nothing about this,"" Tobias added. ""He thinks you’re dead. He thinks he’s walking in to watch our family legacy get torn to shreds by a jackal. We aren't going to tell him otherwise until the doors lock behind us.""
