Chapter 3 - The Blue Room)
Three days after the wedding disaster, the Whitmore mansion no longer looked like a place prepared for celebration.
The flowers had been removed.
The musicians were gone.
The satin ribbons were stripped from the staircase.
Reporters waited outside the gates.
Nathan had released only one public statement.
The ceremony had been canceled because of a private family emergency.
Inside the mansion, nobody was allowed to destroy or remove anything.
Adrian had been caught near the servants' parking area after trying to climb a stone wall.
He claimed he had panicked because Nathan had become violent.
Vanessa insisted Olivia's hearing aid had fallen and been stepped on accidentally.
Leonard Vale said the residential transfer form had been a preliminary legal draft requested by Vanessa because she was concerned about Olivia's emotional health.
Nathan believed none of them.
He had one question.
Who was the woman in the blue room?
The door had been locked when Michael reached it.
Vanessa claimed she did not have the key.
Leonard claimed he had never entered the room.
Nathan ordered the lock drilled open.
The room was empty.
But it had not been used for decorations.
There was a narrow bed.
A half empty glass of water.
A woman's gray cardigan.
And a small overnight bag.
Inside the bag was a toothbrush, medication, and a photograph.
Nathan picked up the photograph.
His knees almost failed.
It showed Emily.
His dead wife.
She was sitting beside another woman outside a cafe.
On the back someone had written a date.
Six weeks before Emily's death.
Nathan knew the other woman.
Her name was Dr. Rebecca Lane.
Rebecca had been Emily's closest friend in college.
She disappeared from Nathan's life after Emily's funeral.
Nathan tried calling the number he still had for her.
Disconnected.
Michael searched the room.
"Sir."
Nathan turned.
Michael was holding a torn piece of paper from beneath the bed.
Three words were visible.
Ask about accident.
Nathan stared at it.
"What accident?"
Neither man had to say the answer.
Emily's.
The official police report said Emily had lost control of her car on a wet mountain road.
There had been no other vehicle involved.
No evidence of sabotage.
Nathan had accepted the investigation because grief made everything else impossible.
But now a woman who had known Emily had secretly been inside his home days before his wedding.
And Olivia said that woman had cried when Leonard spoke to her.
Nathan found Olivia in the sunroom.
Grace was reading beside her.
Nathan sat on the rug.
"Sweetheart, do you remember the lady from the blue room?"
Olivia nodded.
"Did she tell you her name?"
"Becca."
Nathan closed his eyes briefly.
"What did Mr. Vale say to Becca?"
Olivia concentrated.
"He said she waited too long."
"What else?"
"She said she had proof."
Grace stopped reading.
Nathan leaned closer.
"What proof?"
Olivia looked frustrated.
"I don't know."
"That's okay."
"Then Vanessa came."
"What did Vanessa say?"
Olivia touched her empty right ear. A temporary replacement hearing aid had been fitted that morning.
"She said the wedding had to happen first."
Nathan felt cold.
"Before what?"
Olivia whispered.
"Before you found out."
That evening Michael brought Nathan another discovery.
The security system showed Rebecca entering the mansion four days before the wedding.
Her arrival had been manually authorized.
The authorization came from Leonard Vale's security credential.
There was no record of her leaving.
Nathan stared at Michael.
"Search every camera."
"We did."
"And?"
"At 1:32 in the morning, a service van left the property."
"Who owned it?"
Michael placed a photograph on the table.
The van belonged to a private medical transport company.
Its destination that night had been listed as Hawthorne Behavioral Center.
The same facility named on Olivia's Residential Transfer Authorization Form.
Nathan looked at the photograph for several seconds.
"Find Rebecca."
"We're already trying."
May you like
Nathan looked toward the darkened hallway.
For the first time, he realized the plan might never have been only about Olivia.
