Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WHO WALKED AWAY
Police surrounded Sterling Manor before dawn.
Isabella was taken into custody for unlawful confinement, assault, and conspiracy to falsify medical records. Dr. Vale was arrested at a private clinic thirty miles away after Nora identified him.
But Eleanor Sterling was gone.
The blood trail ended at an underground garage beneath the west gardens. One vehicle was missing: an old black sedan registered to the Sterling Foundation.
Security footage had been erased.
The guard who fired the shot claimed he had aimed at Isabella when she reached inside her gown. The bullet struck the ceiling.
No one could explain who had cut Eleanor’s restraints.
No one could explain how a woman weakened by seven years of captivity had escaped without assistance.
William sat beside Ethan’s hospital bed until sunrise.
Doctors treated the boy for dehydration, malnutrition, and prolonged exposure to sedatives. He refused to let Emma leave the room.
Whenever a nurse entered wearing ivory, Ethan panicked.
Emma remained beside him.
At eight in the morning, Detective Mara Quinn arrived.
She was a compact woman in her forties with tired eyes and an unhurried voice. She questioned William first, then Emma, Nora, and Mr. Langley separately.
When she finished, she placed Eleanor’s note inside an evidence bag.
“Who helped you discover the rooms?” she asked William.
“Emma.”
Detective Quinn looked toward the glass partition where Emma sat beside Ethan.
“Did you know her before this week?”
“No.”
“Who hired her?”
“Isabella handled the staff.”
Emma heard the answer through the open door.
A cold sensation moved through her.
She had applied to Sterling Manor after seeing an advertisement through a domestic staffing agency. Her interview had been conducted by telephone. Mr. Langley had seemed surprised when she arrived.
Detective Quinn entered Ethan’s room.
“Emma, may I speak with you outside?”
Ethan tightened his grip on her hand.
“She stays,” he said.
Quinn pulled a chair closer.
“All right.”
She opened a folder.
“Your letter of recommendation came from Lady Margaret Ashcombe.”
“Yes.”
“She died two months ago.”
“I know. I cared for her during her final year.”
“The letter was dated last week.”
Emma stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
“Did you write it yourself?”
“No.”
“Who sent your application to Sterling Manor?”
“The agency.”
“We contacted them. They have no record of you.”
William stepped into the room.
“What are you suggesting?”
Quinn looked at Emma.
“Someone created a false employment trail to place her inside this house.”
Emma remembered Isabella studying her face on the staircase.
Any family nearby?
The question no longer sounded casual.
“Isabella hired me,” Emma said.
“Why?”
Quinn removed a photograph from the folder.
It showed Eleanor Sterling at a charity event twelve years earlier.
Emma felt the room tilt.
Eleanor had the same green eyes as Emma’s mother.
The same high cheekbones.
The same small scar near her left eyebrow.
Quinn placed a second photograph beside it.
It was a picture of Emma at seventeen, standing with her mother outside their cottage.
The resemblance between the two women was undeniable.
William looked from Eleanor’s photograph to Emma.
“Who is your mother?”
“Her name was Rose Hale.”
“Was?”
“She died when I was nineteen.”
“How?”
“A car accident.”
William sat down slowly.
“I knew a Rose.”
Emma’s breath caught.
“She worked for the Sterling Foundation.”
“My mother was a school secretary.”
“That may be what she told you.”
Detective Quinn closed the folder.
“Rose Hale was Eleanor Sterling’s private nurse.”
Ethan looked at Emma.
“You know my mother?”
“No,” Emma whispered.
But a memory had begun to surface.
Her mother standing at the kitchen sink late at night, speaking to someone on the telephone.
A woman’s voice crying through the receiver.
Rose whispering, You have to leave before William signs anything.
Emma had been ten years old.
The next morning, her mother burned a stack of medical papers in the garden.
Detective Quinn leaned forward.
“Emma, Eleanor’s note may not refer to Mr. Langley or the security guards.”
May you like
“Then who?”
“It may refer to you.”
