Chapter 7: What Vanessa Knew
I hadn't thought much about Vanessa.
That surprised me when I realized it.
She had been standing in my driveway with her hand on my husband's chest, smiling while he sl@pped me.
She had been part of the worst afternoon of my life.
And then she had simply receded, the way secondary characters do when the main story turns out to be bigger than anyone expected.
Crawford brought her up on a Thursday, ten days after Ryan's arrest.
"She came to us," he said.
"Voluntarily.
She has a statement she wants to give."
"About what?"
"About what she knew.
And when."
I met her at Crawford's office.
A conference room with a long table and windows that looked out over a parking structure.
Not a dramatic setting.
Which felt right, somehow.
Vanessa looked different without the driveway version of herself.
Smaller.
She was wearing a gray blazer and no jewelry, and she sat with her hands folded on the table like a woman who had decided to stop performing.
"I didn't know about Sandra," she said, before I could speak.
"I want to be clear about that.
I didn't know about the Phoenix family."
"What did you know?"
She looked at her hands.
"I knew about the trust.
He told me about it early on.
He said you had family money that you were sitting on, that your father controlled it and treated him like he wasn't good enough, and that once he had legal access he was going to move it and start over." She paused.
"He made it sound like you were the obstacle.
Like you were the one keeping him trapped."
"He told you I was the villain."
"Yes."
I looked at her steadily.
"And you believed him."
"I wanted to." She met my eyes for the first time.
"That's the honest answer.
I wanted to believe it because the alternative was that I was helping someone hurt a woman who hadn't done anything wrong." A pause.
"I think I knew.
I think I chose not to look."
The room was quiet.
"He told me to be there that day," she said.
"The day in the driveway.
He said he needed me there as a — he called it a witness.
That you were unstable and he needed someone who could confirm his version of events if it came to that." Her jaw tightened.
"I didn't know he was going to hjt you.
I want you to know that.
When he did it, I—" She stopped.
"I should have said something.
I didn't.
And I've thought about that every day since."
"What do you want from me, Vanessa?"
She shook her head.
"Nothing.
I'm not here to ask you for anything.
I'm here because Crawford told me my statement could add to the fraud charges.
And because I owe you the truth, even if it doesn't help you."
I studied her face.
She wasn't performing remorse.
She was just sitting with it.
That was different.
"Tell Crawford everything," I said.
"All of it.
Whatever he told you about the trust, about his plans, about me.
All of it."
"I will."
I stood up.
"Vanessa." She looked up.
"He did the same thing to Sandra.
Told her you were the problem.
Kept you both looking at each other so neither of you looked at him."
She absorbed that.
"How is she?" she asked quietly.
"Stronger than he expected."
Vanessa nodded once.
She looked out the window at the parking structure.
May you like
"So are you," she said.
I picked up my bag and left.
