Chapter 3 - The Brass Key
Daniel picked up the key using his handkerchief.
It was old.
Small.
Unmarked.
By the time the main lights returned, officers had searched the garden.
Nora was nowhere.
The open library window led to a narrow terrace.
Beyond it was a hedge, a service path, and several acres of wooded property.
Detective Hart stood near the window.
“You think she ran?”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
“She disappeared from a locked room during a blackout.”
“That’s exactly why I don’t think she ran.”
Owen studied him.
“Explain.”
“Nora knew the police were here.”
“She was a suspect.”
“She also knew I had just started believing her.”
Daniel held up the key.
“And she was about to explain this.”
Owen looked toward the terrace.
“So someone wanted her gone.”
“Yes.”
“Or she wanted you to think that.”
Daniel didn’t respond.
He couldn’t completely dismiss it.
That frightened him.
Upstairs, Lily was finally asleep.
Claire stood outside the bedroom with folded arms.
“You should take her somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“A hotel.”
“If someone planned this inside my house, they knew exactly who was attending dinner.”
“That doesn’t mean they know which hotel you’d choose.”
“It means I’m not moving Lily until I understand who can be trusted.”
Claire’s jaw tightened.
“Do you trust me?”
Daniel looked at his sister.
They had grown up together.
Shared birthdays.
Funerals.
Holidays.
Business crises.
She had held Lily the night Rebecca died.
He wanted to say yes immediately.
Instead he said, “I don’t know.”
Pain flickered across her face.
“Daniel.”
“I found a vial next to your chair.”
“Which Lily says wasn’t the one she saw.”
“You denied speaking to Nora.”
“Because I didn’t.”
“And Rebecca thought someone in our family was altering her drinks.”
Claire went silent.
Daniel watched her carefully.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Think before you answer again.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Rebecca never said anything to you?”
Claire shook her head.
Then she looked away.
Daniel caught it.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“What?”
Claire exhaled.
“Two months before she died, Rebecca asked me something strange.”
Daniel waited.
“She asked whether Dad had ever changed the trust.”
Daniel’s pulse quickened.
“Our father?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That he revised it shortly before his stroke.”
“That’s public family knowledge.”
“Not all of it.”
Daniel stared at her.
Claire continued.
“There was an amendment.”
“What amendment?”
She looked uncomfortable.
“Daniel, this isn’t the time.”
“This is exactly the time.”
Claire lowered her voice.
“If you die before Lily turns twenty-five, control of your voting shares temporarily passes to a trustee.”
Daniel already knew that.
“To Michael.”
“No.”
He stopped.
“What?”
Claire swallowed.
“Dad changed it.”
“When?”
“Three weeks before his stroke.”
“To who?”
Claire stared at him.
“To Rebecca.”
Daniel blinked.
“That makes no sense.”
“It made sense to Dad.”
“Rebecca is dead.”
“I know.”
“So the amendment is irrelevant.”
Claire hesitated.
Daniel felt something inside him go cold.
“What are you not telling me?”
“When Rebecca died, the trust was supposed to revert.”
“To Michael.”
“Yes.”
“Supposed to?”
Claire nodded.
“But Rebecca filed something six days before the accident.”
“What?”
“A guardianship designation.”
Daniel stared.
“For Lily.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Thomas handled it.”
Thomas Vale.
Their family attorney.
Daniel turned toward the stairs.
Claire grabbed his arm.
“Don’t accuse anyone until you know what you’re dealing with.”
Daniel looked down at her hand.
“Someone tried to put something in my tea.”
Claire released him.
“And if Rebecca’s death was connected?”
Daniel said nothing.
That possibility had already taken root.
Downstairs, Thomas Vale was being questioned in the study.
Daniel waited until Owen stepped outside.
Then he entered.
Thomas looked exhausted.
He was sixty-one.
Silver-haired.
Always precise.
He had worked for Daniel’s father before Daniel took control of Mercer Holdings.
Daniel closed the door.
“Who did Rebecca appoint?”
Thomas’s expression changed.
That was all Daniel needed.
“You knew.”
“Daniel—”
“Who did she appoint as Lily’s guardian?”
Thomas stood slowly.
“I’m bound by confidentiality.”
“My wife is dead.”
“That doesn’t erase privilege.”
“My daughter may be in danger.”
Thomas looked toward the closed door.
Then back at Daniel.
“The designation was conditional.”
“Who?”
Thomas took a breath.
“Nora Bell.”
Daniel stared.
His missing housekeeper.
Rebecca had chosen Nora to protect Lily.
“Why?”
“She didn’t explain.”
“When does it take effect?”
“If you die while Lily is a minor.”
Daniel felt the pieces move.
“If I die, Nora becomes Lily’s guardian.”
“Yes.”
“And who controls my voting shares?”
Thomas looked uncomfortable.
“Lily eventually inherits them.”
“Until then?”
“A guardian-controlled trust.”
Daniel understood.
Nora would have enormous influence.
Which gave her motive.
Unless someone wanted it to look that way.
“Who knew?”
“Rebecca.”
“You.”
“And?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Your father.”
“He was incapacitated.”
“Yes.”
“Anyone else?”
“No.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“You’re lying.”
Thomas looked offended.
“You don’t know me very well if you think—”
“I’ve known you twenty-eight years.”
“Then you know I don’t lie about legal documents.”
Daniel placed the brass key on the desk.
Thomas’s face changed.
Barely.
But enough.
“You recognize it.”
“No.”
Daniel watched him.
“You just did.”
Thomas shook his head.
“I don’t.”
“What does it open?”
“I have no idea.”
Daniel picked it up again.
Behind him, the study door opened.
Detective Hart entered.
“Daniel.”
He held a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a black silk scarf.
Daniel stared at it.
“Where did you find that?”
“In the hedge outside the library.”
Daniel thought about Lily.
The woman with the bottle.
The scarf.
The silhouette.
“Anything else?”
Owen’s expression was grim.
“Blood.”
Claire appeared in the doorway.
“Whose?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Owen looked at Daniel.
“But there’s enough to suggest Nora didn’t leave willingly.”
Daniel’s chest tightened.
Then another officer entered.
“Detective.”
Hart turned.
“We found something near the service gate.”
“What?”
The officer hesitated.
“A shoe.”
Daniel already knew before he saw it.
Black.
Low heel.
Small silver buckle.
Nora had been wearing the matching pair at dinner.
Hart looked toward the dark windows.
“If she was taken, whoever did it knew your security system.”
Daniel looked at Thomas.
Then Claire.
Then the brass key in his hand.
And suddenly remembered something.
His father had owned only one piece of furniture that required a key like this.
An old walnut writing desk.
The desk had been moved after his death.
Daniel knew exactly where it was.
In Rebecca’s locked bedroom suite.
May you like
A room Daniel had not entered since the morning after she died.
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