Clara pressed the green accept button and brought the small smartphone directly to her ear. A hurried, panicked voice rushed through the speaker before she could even utter a single word. “Mr. Vance, thank goodness you’re alive! The federal inspectors are already reviewing the site blueprints, and the insurance investigator is asking difficult questions about the collapse.”
A heavy silence fell over the gravesite as the caller’s words echoed loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear. Lawrence Cobb turned completely pale, his mouth opening and closing like a fish gulping for air. Verónica let out a sharp gasp, realizing that the elaborate cover-up she and Lawrence had meticulously engineered was unraveling in real time.
Clara held the phone tightly, her eyes narrowing as she connected the terrifying dots. “This is Leonard’s mother,” Clara declared into the microphone, her tone cold as ice. “My son is not in this office, and the man you think you’re burying right now is a complete stranger. What happened at that construction site?”
