Chapter 6 - THE VAN REPAIRED IN SECRET
Carter Grand Events maintained vans for catering equipment and staff transport.
The official fleet log showed Locker 19 had stored obsolete uniforms.
The handwritten basement ledger said otherwise.
Anna used it for duplicate invoices and backup drives.
The day after her crash, Robert ordered the locker cleared and the contents burned at a waste facility.
The same day, one company van received emergency body repairs.
The invoice described damage from a loading-dock collision.
The repaired areas were the right front bumper, headlight, and side mirror.
Anna’s police report described paint transfer and debris from an unidentified white commercial vehicle that struck the rear quarter of her car before she lost control.
Carter’s vans were white.
The repair shop had photographed the damage for insurance purposes.
One image showed strands of dark-blue vehicle paint embedded in the bumper.
Anna’s car had been dark blue.
I sat in Detective Ellis’s office staring at the photograph.
“You’re saying a company van hit her.”
“We’re saying the evidence requires the crash investigation to reopen.”
“Who was driving?”
“The assignment log was altered.”
The original digital record had been deleted.
A paper dispatch sheet remained inside the basement files.
Driver: Mason Carter.
My nephew.
Audrey’s oldest son had been nineteen.
He had worked occasional event shifts while attending college.
Mason was one of the cousins filming my confrontation with Robert.
He had spent three years avoiding my eyes.
Police located him at Audrey’s house.
He requested counsel before speaking.
Audrey called me.
“This is revenge.”
“Did Mason drive the van?”
“He was a child.”
“He was nineteen.”
“It was raining. Anna drove too fast.”
“You knew.”
Silence.
“You knew the van hit her.”
“It was an accident.”
“Leaving the scene was not.”
“Dad said she was already dead.”
The room around me seemed to narrow.
“How would he know before police reached her?”
Audrey hung up.
Mason’s attorney arranged a proffer.
He admitted driving.
He had been transporting locked cash boxes from Carter Hall after Anna instructed him to take them to the company’s outside auditor.
Robert intercepted him.
He said the boxes contained stolen property Anna planned to use against the family.
Mason turned back toward the estate.
During the storm, Anna followed in her car.
Mason changed lanes.
The van struck her.
He panicked and kept driving.
Robert ordered the repairs and told him Anna’s death resulted from her own reckless pursuit.
“Did he ask you to lie to police?” Detective Ellis asked.
“Yes.”
“Did Helen know?”
“Yes.”
“Audrey?”
“Yes.”
Mason began crying.
“I wanted to tell Uncle Thomas.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Grandpa said Thomas would lose the children if Anna’s fraud became public. Mom said I would go to prison and destroy everyone.”
His fear explained the silence.
It did not erase a fatal hit-and-run.
Prosecutors began reviewing charges based on the evidence and applicable law.
The crash had not been an intentional killing.
The cover-up had allowed Robert to blame the dead woman he helped silence.
“What happened to the cash boxes?” I asked.
“Grandpa took them.”
“Did Anna say anything after the collision?”
Mason looked toward his lawyer.
Then he nodded.
“She got out of her car for a few seconds before collapsing.”
“Did you stop?”
“I stopped farther ahead.”
“What did she say?”
“She handed me a flash drive.”
My breath caught.
“Where is it?”
May you like
Mason whispered:
“I hid it inside the red book Helen took from the basement.”
