Chapter 16 - The Blood Beneath the TableThe emergency lights continued flashing red as Detective Sofia Reyes ordered everyone to remain beneath the table.
Mara ignored her.
She crawled toward the private entrance where Elise had disappeared. Broken glass covered the floor, but there was no blood near the doorway.
Only one dark blue thread clung to the brass handle.
Adrian caught Mara’s wrist before she could step outside.
“The shooter may still be there.”
“My mother is out there.”
“We don’t know that woman is your mother.”
Mara pulled free.
“That didn’t stop someone from trying to kill her.”
Security finally responded over Adrian’s radio. The west wing had been sealed, but the camera system remained trapped in a repeating eighteen-second loop. No one had seen Elise leave.
Sofia examined the bullet lodged in Eleanor’s chair.
“It was fired from the garden,” she said. “But the angle is wrong.”
“What does that mean?” Patricia asked.
“The shooter wasn’t aiming at Elise.”
Sofia pulled the torn cushion aside. The bullet had passed through the chair and struck the floor directly beneath it.
Something metallic glimmered inside the damaged wood.
Adrian used a knife to pry open a narrow compartment beneath the seat. Inside was a sealed glass tube containing a strip of paper stained brown with age.
Mara unfolded it carefully.
A list of names had been written in Eleanor’s hand.
Elise Sutton.
Vivian Dane.
Helena Vale.
Margaret Sutton.
Beside the first three names was the same date—the night of the crash.
Beside Margaret’s name were two words:
Original successor.
Patricia leaned closer.
“Who is Margaret Sutton?”
No one answered.
Daniel stared at the list as though he had seen the name before.
Mara noticed.
“You know something.”
Daniel shook his head too quickly.
“I’m not sure.”
“Tell me.”
He looked toward Eleanor’s empty chair.
“When Grandmother was dying, she called me Margaret.”
Before Mara could question him further, a telephone rang inside the closed restaurant.
It was not anyone’s mobile phone.
The sound came from the private dining room wall.
Adrian removed a framed painting and found an old black telephone hidden behind it.
Mara lifted the receiver.
A woman whispered:
May you like
“You have twenty-four hours to decide which mother you want to believe.”
Then the line went dead.
Related Stories
