Episode 49 - Evidence

Natalie caught Vince in the hallway as he was on his way to his class. "Hey, do you have a minute?"

"Yeah," he said. "But the bell's about to ring. Aren't you going to be late?"

"Maybe, but this is important," she looked around. "Is there somewhere we can talk privately?"

"Sure." They ducked into a nearby empty classroom, away from the crowds in the hallway.

Natalie reached into her pocket and pulled out his cell phone. "With all the chaos last night, I forgot I still had your phone."

"Thanks. I was wondering where it was." He reached out, but she didn't hand the phone to him.

"I know I shouldn't have looked, but the phone buzzed and . . . I saw your messages. Who did you meet with last night and why?"

Vince sighed. "Someone I shouldn't have. Someone I hope I never see again."

"Was it the person who started the fire?"

"Yes," he said quietly.

"Mr. Lind's son?"

"Scot, yeah." As the bell rang, Vince knew he was done for. Natalie had the message from Scot asking him to meet before the fire and any messages he might have sent since the fire. The connection between him and the arsonist had been confirmed. All she had to do was tell someone and his life as he knew it was over.

"Why were you there?" she asked hesitantly. "Did you . . ."

"I had nothing to do with it, I swear," he insisted. She looked doubtful, so he continued. "What I said last night was true. I was just going to meet with Scot to give him some papers and then come straight back to school. I didn't want to follow along with them after that. I didn't even want to meet with him in the first place. I never expected things to go down like they did. When I realized what was happening, I just wanted to get out of there, but it happened so fast and when I heard you scream . . .I couldn't just leave."

They stared at each other in silence for a moment as Natalie processed what he just said and Vince waited for her reaction. Having made up her mind, Natalie held the cell phone out to Vince. He was so taken aback by the gesture that it took him a moment to realize he should take it.

"I haven't mentioned the messages to anyone. My dad figured out Scot was the one robbing his father's company before the fire and my mom has the evidence to prove it on his laptop. He's going to go down for this even without your messages."

"Then you believe me? That I didn't, I would never-"

"You're the reason my dad is still alive. I don't know if I would have gotten out of that window uninjured without you and I really don't know if my head would have been clear enough to do CPR and call for help in the moment, but luckily I don't have to wonder because you were there. Thank you for not running away."

As Natalie left to go to class, Vince immediately deleted the incriminating messages from his phone. There were only two, the message about meeting him before the fire and a second one from this morning that was a vague threat to keep his mouth shut.

That Natalie believed him meant everything to him, but at the same time he was more anxious than ever. What evidence had Mr. Kitteridge collected against Scot? What if something in that evidence pointed to him? He absolutely did not trust his former friends not to throw him under the bus with them. He wished he could put this all behind him, but it was clearly far from over.

* * * * *

Reese was greeted by Mr. Lind's butler when she arrived at her boss's impressive home. Mr. Lind had called everyone from the office over to discuss the extent of loss from the fire and their plans to salvage the firm. Reese had hoped to be the first one to arrive so they could discuss Blaine's discovery in private, but she wasn't early enough. When the butler showed her into the sitting room, she found Mr. Lind and his nephew, Dustin, already seated and discussing the events of the night before.

When Mr. Lind stood up to greet her, she could see that he looked tired. "Thank you for coming, Reese. Have a seat."

As they both sat down, he let out a heavy sigh. "I just can't believe it. My mind is racing thinking about all of the records we must have lost. I don't know how we'll ever recover."

"We'll find a way," Dustin said, optimistically. "We have a good team. We will all pull together and do what we can for our clients."

Reese fidgeted with the laptop case on her lap, wondering how she was going to tell her boss what she knew.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," he said. His voice was already weary.

"At least no one was hurt. Your daughter was there, wasn't she, Reese? How is she?"

"She's fine. Blaine isn't doing so well though."

"That's a shame. He seems like a nice guy. I hope his condition improves. I'm sorry he got caught up in all of this."

"Natalie told me that he . . . finished the project he was working on just before the fire."

"Really? They know who was taking the money?"

She looked from Mr. Lind to Dustin whose eyes were narrowed in confusion. "Maybe we should talk about this in private."

"No, it's fine. You can speak freely in front of Dustin, unless it was him." He turned wide-eyed to his nephew, but Dustin looked more confused than ever. "Then in that case, may he should stay for a different reason."

"What are you two talking about?" Dustin asked alarmed.

"No, it wasn't Dustin." Reese took a deep breath. "It was your son, Scot."

"Scot?" His brows furled in confusion as if he couldn't comprehend that possibility. He shook his head, but he couldn't come up with any words to deny it.

"Apparently, the dates and times from when he was in the office and was likely to have been at home match the data linked to your home and office computers. Blaine compiled the evidence on his laptop," She patted the case on her lap. "But it's password protected and we can't access it. We'll have to wait until he wakes up or until we can get someone to crack the password."

Mr. Lind shook his head, still in denial.

"I'm very sorry," Reese said. She felt terrible for adding this on top of his already heavy burden.

"Scot!" Mr. Lind bellowed out as he pulled himself up from the couch and marched out of the room. He stormed up the stairs and burst into his son's bedroom. When he opened the door, he was stunned to find the room was empty. His son's clothing and personal belongings had all been cleared out.