Chapter 13 - The Last Lie of Margaret Vale)
Ethan survived surgery. The bullet missed his heart by three inches. Federal agents arrested him before anesthesia wore off.
Laura surrendered the knife and entered protective psychiatric care by choice, her first voluntary medical decision in nine years. Samuel remained in custody for Claire's kidnapping, evidence tampering, and his role in Laura's confinement. His cooperation could lessen his sentence, but not erase it.
Margaret demanded another meeting.
This time Claire went in person. Her new cast ended at the waist, and she entered the secure interview room in a wheelchair. Mason stood behind the observation glass.
Margaret's elegant mask had vanished. Her hair was uncombed. Her hands trembled from the poison.
Claire placed the cream handkerchief on the table.
"Who fired the shot?"
Margaret smiled faintly. "Richard used to buy them by the dozen. An initial is not a fingerprint."
"You know who planted it."
"Of course."
"Samuel?"
"Samuel wants Ethan alive. Brothers need each other, especially when hatred is the only relationship they understand."
"Laura?"
"Laura had the knife. She did not need a rifle."
Claire waited.
Margaret looked toward the one-way glass. "Detective Reed has built his career around the Vale family. Did he tell you why?"
Mason's posture changed behind the glass.
"His father, Thomas Reed, was Richard's chief financial officer. He authorized the shell companies Laura uncovered. When the investigation began, Thomas vanished. Mason joined the police to find him, or to protect him. I have never determined which."
Claire remembered how quickly Mason had produced Laura's folder, how perfectly he understood the hidden history, how he had been at the mausoleum when evidence disappeared.
Margaret leaned closer. "Everyone in this story entered before you did. You are the only person without an old allegiance. That makes you useful. It also makes you disposable."
"Why did you try to kill me? The real reason."
Margaret's eyes filled, though her voice stayed firm. "Because Ethan told me the card contained proof that I drowned Samuel. He said your testimony would unlock it. I had spent twenty-eight years believing I allowed Richard to imprison one son in order to save the other. If the world believed I had tried to murder a child, everything I sacrificed would become meaningless."
"You were willing to murder me to protect the story you told yourself."
"Yes."
"Did you kill my mother?"
"No. I learned about the car afterward. I helped Richard hide it. There is no moral difference, but there is a factual one."
Claire wheeled back. "You'll testify to all of it."
"If I live long enough."
"Is that a threat?"
"A forecast."
The lights went out.
Emergency alarms sounded throughout the detention wing. Mason entered immediately, weapon drawn. When backup lighting flickered on, Margaret was slumped over the table.
Blood ran from a tiny wound beneath her jaw.
A dart lay on the floor.
The shot had passed through the ventilation grille behind Claire.
Doctors arrived, but Margaret was dead before they opened the door.
The facility locked down. Every guard was searched. Every camera reviewed. No shooter appeared.
In Margaret's clenched hand, investigators found a scrap of paper she had concealed in her sleeve. It contained a telephone number and two words.
TRUST CLAIRE.
May you like
The number belonged to Thomas Reed, Mason's missing father.
It had been called that morning from a phone registered to Detective Mason Reed.
