Chapter 5 - ASHLEY HAD CALLED FOR HELP BEFORE THE MURDER
Emma could not make the timing fit.
“If Ashley called for help, why did she stand there?”
Daniel corrected her gently.
“She didn’t call. The beacon transmitted coordinates.”
“Same difference.”
“Not emotionally.”
That distinction made Emma angry.
Ashley had watched Michael pull her toward a cliff.
Ashley had lied to investigators afterward.
Ashley had stood at Emma’s memorial wearing black.
Whatever she had done with a beacon did not make her innocent.
Investigators reconstructed the sequence.
At 2:41 p.m., Ashley’s emergency beacon was manually activated.
At 2:44, coordinates entered the regional rescue system.
Because of weather and a separate search operation already in progress, the National Guard aircraft was asked to check the signal while returning across the park.
At approximately 2:55, the crew reached the area.
Michael shoved Emma moments before the searchlight arrived.
Emma stared at Daniel.
“She knew he was going to do it.”
“We don’t know when she knew.”
“She brought the beacon.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“That’s what she has not explained.”
Ashley retained an attorney.
Then she stopped answering informal questions.
Michael continued claiming Emma’s fall had been accidental.
When told investigators had found a beacon, he said Ashley carried emergency equipment because they were hiking in winter.
A reasonable explanation.
Until the investigator asked why Ashley activated it before the accident.
Michael requested his lawyer.
Emma received another piece of information that afternoon.
Michael was not financially secure.
For years he had presented himself as the practical half of their marriage.
Emma was the visionary entrepreneur.
Michael handled investments.
That was how they described themselves at dinners.
In reality, Michael had personally guaranteed debt on two commercial real-estate projects that were failing.
One had lost its primary tenant.
Another faced refinancing at significantly higher costs.
His potential exposure exceeded seven million dollars.
That did not require murder.
It did explain desperation.
Then investigators discovered transfers between Michael and Ashley.
Not payments for sex.
Not secret vacations.
Ashley had invested $410,000 of her own money into one of Michael’s failing projects.
She was not merely his employee.
She was financially tied to him.
If he collapsed, she lost nearly everything she had.
Emma looked at the statement.
“So she needed me dead too.”
Her attorney answered carefully.
“She had a financial motive for Michael’s problems to disappear.”
Emma stared at Grace sleeping beside her.
Michael’s crisis had become Ashley’s crisis.
Emma’s life had become their solution.
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But the beacon remained.
Why would a woman helping plan a murder summon rescuers before the murder happened?
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