Chapter 13 - Garrett’s Contingency
Garrett’s flash drive was not a confession.
It was worse in a different way.
It was planning.
Folders:
HAYES STRUCTURE.
SURVIVORSHIP.
POST WATER.
P BOARD.
R ESTATE.
T CREDIBILITY.
He had anticipated Tobias becoming problem if he survived.
Under T CREDIBILITY:
Publicly disabled fifteen years.
Investigate benefit fraud.
Mobility inconsistency.
Question mental stability after trauma.
Garrett assumed Tobias’s walking secret would destroy him.
Instead records showed medical and insurance transparency.
The lie was personal, not financial.
Then me.
R REACTION:
If Rosalind survives, emphasize steering interference.
Marriage instability.
Grief history.
Medication? No. We should not invent.
Maybe "marital conflict and stress."
He had prepared story that we argued over Penelope affair? But I didn’t know. He could claim I discovered affair in car and grabbed wheel.
Indeed.
A draft statement:
Rosalind confronted me about Penelope during drive and became physically agitated.
He had planned to say I knew.
I did not.
Then Penelope on shore could corroborate I was upset? She wasn't in car.
Not.
Then insurance.
He intended to file life claim after deaths.
Ordinary step.
But R ESTATE included:
Do not contest shareholder restrictions initially.
Work through P.
P.
Penelope.
Then:
Once employee trust votes new chair, introduce Harbor fund.
There.
Corporate takeover after grief.
Then parents crash.
One folder:
VICTOR.
Inside Garrett’s analysis of potential liability.
He knew Mullen.
He interviewed him privately three years earlier.
Audio file.
Garrett:
Did my father tell you to kill Arthur?
Mullen:
No. He told me scare him. I swear.
Garrett:
And you altered car.
Mullen:
Yes.
Garrett:
Then you killed them anyway.
Mullen crying.
Garrett had a confession.
He hid it.
Why?
Because revealing could implicate Vale estate and destroy Garrett’s access to me? More.
Then at end:
Mullen:
Rosalind deserves to know.
Garrett:
Rosalind deserves whatever keeps her from destroying herself over dead people.
Control disguised protection again.
He told Mullen never contact.
Paid him $40,000 under “consulting settlement” from Vale estate account.
Was that hush money? Prosecutors argued obstruction/cover-up.
Mullen cooperated.
Then one handwritten note from Garrett:
Father tried fear. It got two people killed and still didn’t get yard.
Next line:
No half measures.
I stared.
There.
He had learned wrong lesson.
Victor claimed he intended scare.
Garrett wanted certainty.
Then his defense shifted.
He could no longer plausibly claim accident.
His lawyers began exploring mental state, coercion by Penelope? Maybe not. They later argued financial planning did not prove intent to kill, but physical evidence did.
Garrett declined plea offer initially.
Offer would require admitting attempted murder and conspiracy with substantial sentence recommendation.
He wanted trial.
Why?
Maybe believed Penelope unreliable.
Tobias liar.
Me emotional.
Mullen criminal.
Documents contextual.
He had always believed narratives could beat facts.
Then I decided to testify.
Not for shipyard.
River.
June prepared.
“Do not speculate about what Garrett felt.”
“I won’t.”
“Do not call him psychopath.”
“I won’t.”
“Describe what you saw.”
The calm.
The belt.
His exit.
Penelope.
Smile.
Then Tobias.
Defense would attack four-year deception.
He accepted.
“I lied to my sister.”
“Yes.”
“Public?”
“Yes.”
“Why should jury trust you?”
“Because don’t trust my word. Trust vehicle, messages, medical records, and Garrett’s files.”
Strong.
Then Penelope.
She would be devastating.
But juries distrust cooperators.
Prosecutors had corroboration.
Then I asked June:
“Will my parents get justice too?”
She answered carefully.
“Your parents’ case is separate.”
Victor dead.
Mullen plea.
Garrett cover-up.
No retroactive conviction of dead man.
Maybe court would establish.
It would never feel enough.
Then something unexpected.
Arthur’s old attorney found a sealed letter Marianne had written to all three children days before crash.
Not about danger.
Estate update.
She worried Penelope would feel lesser because Arthur’s company shares were restricted.
Marianne wrote:
Penelope is no less my daughter because Arthur’s business cannot be divided equally under documents created before our marriage.
My chest tightened.
Then:
I have tried to compensate economically elsewhere, but money will never perfectly solve belonging.
Penelope had never received letter.
Why?
It was in attorney file marked to deliver upon Marianne’s death, but after crash amid estate chaos, a clerical failure left it sealed.
Fifteen years.
One missed letter did not cause murder.
But it was heartbreaking.
I gave copy to Penelope’s attorney.
No message.
Maybe she needed it.
May you like
Maybe too late.
Truth late is still truth.
