Chapter 10: What Deb Said
The call was at two o'clock on Friday.
Deb's voice was quieter than I expected.
Not timid — careful.
The voice of someone who had rehearsed what they were going to say and was sticking to it.
"I want to be clear about something first," she said.
"Vanessa and I are not — it wasn't what you think.
We were close.
Too close, probably.
But I didn't know the full picture of what she was doing in that house."
Patricia kept her voice neutral.
"What did you know, Ms.
Crane?"
"I knew she wasn't happy in the marriage.
I knew she was putting money aside.
She told me it was her own savings, money she'd earned before the wedding that she was just moving into a joint account between us for safekeeping." A pause.
"I believed her.
I shouldn't have, but I did."
"When did you stop believing her?"
"When I saw the transfer amounts.
She started moving larger sums in the spring.
I asked her where it was coming from and she said Michael had agreed to give her a personal allowance that she was saving." Deb's voice tightened slightly.
"I asked her to show me something that confirmed that.
She got angry.
She told me I was being paranoid and that I should trust her."
"Did you?" Patricia asked.
"For a while.
Then in April she mentioned the insurance account."
I went still.
"She told you about that?" I said.
"She told me there was a large protected account in Lily's name and that she was trying to find a way to access it.
She said—" Deb stopped.
"She said that since she was Lily's legal stepmother, she might have grounds to petition for access if the marriage ended badly for Michael."
The room was completely silent.
"She was going to go after Claire's insurance money," I said.
Not a question.
"I think she was exploring it.
I don't know how serious it was.
But that was when I told her I wanted out.
I told her to move my name off the account and I didn't want to be involved anymore." Another pause.
"She told me if I backed away she would tell you that the whole thing was my idea.
That I had manipulated her into it.
She said you'd believe her over me."
"The same thing she told Lily," I said quietly.
"I'm sorry?"
"Nothing.
Keep going."
"I didn't back away fast enough.
I should have gone to someone sooner.
I know that." Her voice was flat now, stripped of rehearsal.
"I'm not asking you to feel sorry for me.
I just — I can't let her use Claire's name to hurt that little girl.
That's not something I'm willing to be part of."
Patricia looked at me across the table.
I nodded.
"Ms.
Crane," Patricia said, "I'm going to need you to provide a written statement covering everything you've just told us.
Dates, amounts, conversations — everything you can remember.
My paralegal will contact you this afternoon with the format."
"I'll do it," Deb said.
"And the account — is there still money in it?"
"Twenty-two thousand.
She's been withdrawing since the separation filing.
I froze my access to it two days ago and contacted my bank." A pause.
"I've already told them it may be disputed funds."
"That was the right thing to do."
"I know it's too late to be the right thing," Deb said.
"But it's what I've got."
The call ended.
Patricia set her pen down and looked at me.
"She'll hold," she said.
"People who call proactively usually do."
"Vanessa threatened a seven-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl with the same line she used on her co-conspirator," I said.
"I'll believe you over them.
That was her whole system."
"It works," Patricia said, "until it doesn't." She closed her folder.
"We're ready to file.
I want to move quickly before she makes any more withdrawals.
Are you prepared?"
I thought about Lily eating her eggs.
I thought about Mason and his recorder.
May you like
I thought about Claire's name in Vanessa's mouth, stored like a weapon for three years.
"File it," I said.
