"He was building a case against Sterling?" Maria asked.
"Not against him exactly. More like..." Diana turned back to face them. "Victor wanted to protect himself. He kept records of everything—every corner that was cut, every inspection that was rushed, every material substitution. He said if things went wrong, if there was a lawsuit or investigation, he wasn't going to be the only one taking the fall. He wanted insurance."
"And he shared this information with you?" Kari kept her voice neutral, not revealing how significant this confession was.
"Some of it. He wanted me to know that he had it, that if anything happened to him, there were copies. He said..." Diana's voice dropped. "He said he was worried. That the project had gotten out of control, that too many people knew about the problems. He was scared someone might try to silence him."
The room felt charged, Diana's words hanging in the air. Kari and Maria exchanged glances. This wasn't the confession they'd expected, but it was revealing something crucial about the dynamics leading up to the murders.
"When was the last time you saw Victor?" Maria asked.
"Two days before he died. I went to his house to pick up copies of some documents he'd prepared." Diana's face was pale now. "He gave me a thumb drive. Said it had everything on it—emails, photos, financial records. Told me to keep it safe, that if anything happened to him I should take it to federal authorities, not local police."
"Where is that thumb drive now?" Kari asked.
"I destroyed it." Diana's voice was barely above a whisper. "After Victor died, after I realized what was happening, I got scared. Scared that having that information made me a target too. So I destroyed it."
"You destroyed evidence in a murder investigation," Maria said flatly.
"I didn't know it was evidence! I thought—" Diana stopped, seeming to realize she'd said too much. "I need to talk to a lawyer. I shouldn't be saying any of this without a lawyer present."
"Ms. Gray, if you know something about why Victor Sheridan was killed and you're not telling us, you're potentially protecting a murderer," Kari said. "Is that what you want?"
Diana turned back to the windows, her arms wrapped around herself. The afternoon sun illuminated her profile, highlighting the tension in her jaw, the way she was barely holding herself together.
"I thought I was protecting myself," she said quietly. "I thought if I just stayed quiet, stayed close to Charles, acted like I didn't know anything, I'd be safe. But I can't anymore. I can't keep pretending."
She turned back to face them, her eyes bright with unshed tears.
"There's something I need to confess."
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Kari and Maria waited, the silence stretching between them. Diana walked back to the table and sat down heavily, as if the weight of what she was about to say had finally become too much to carry.
"I was having a relationship with Victor Sheridan," Diana said quietly. "Not just business meetings. An actual relationship. We were... involved."
Maria pulled out her notebook. "For how long?"
"About six months. It started a few months after I moved in here with Charles." Diana's laugh was bitter. "I know how that sounds. The younger woman having an affair behind the wealthy older man's back. But it wasn't like that. Charles was always working, always focused on the resort project. And when he wasn't working, he was..."
She paused, searching for words. "He was somewhere else. Emotionally, I mean. Still grieving Catherine, still living in the past. Some days I'd try to have a conversation with him and it was like talking to a wall. He'd be physically present but completely checked out."
"So you turned to Victor Sheridan," Kari said, keeping her voice neutral.
"Victor was different. He listened. He was present." Diana wiped her eyes. "We'd meet at his house, talk for hours. It felt real in a way nothing with Charles ever has. And yes, I know that makes me terrible. Charles took me in when I had nothing, gave me a place to live, and I repaid him by sleeping with one of his contractors. But I was lonely, and Victor made me feel like I mattered."
"Did Sterling know?" Maria asked.
"No. Charles barely notices I exist most days. He certainly didn't notice I was spending time with someone else. He's too busy mourning Catherine—or feuding with his daughter." She snorted.
"Rebecca, you mean?"
Diana nodded.
"What do they fight about?" Kari asked.
"She seems to blame him. For Catherine's death, I assume. I don't know the specifics—Charles won't talk about it, and Rebecca certainly won't discuss it with me. But there's this tension between them. Rebecca barely speaks to him anymore. They can go days without exchanging more than a few words, even living in the same house."
