Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Emerald Dress
Vanessa laughed.
It was a short, sharp sound.
Completely wrong for the moment.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
She pressed a hand to her necklace.
“You're confused.”
Noah didn't move.
“I saw you.”
Richard slowly stood.
“What?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Richard, please. He just survived something traumatic.”
Noah clutched Elena's fingers.
“She touched the shiny thing.”
Elena looked toward the pedestal.
“What shiny thing, Noah?”
“The little silver wheel.”
Richard turned to his security chief.
“Daniel.”
Daniel Mercer had worked for Richard for eleven years.
He was a former New York detective, a quiet man who rarely showed emotion.
Now his face had gone hard.
“Sir?”
“Find out what he's talking about.”
Daniel walked toward the wreckage.
Vanessa followed him with her eyes.
“Richard, surely you aren't taking the word of a terrified five-year-old over mine.”
Richard looked at her.
“I'm listening to my son.”
Noah lowered his head.
“Vanessa told me not to tell.”
The silence became unbearable.
Vanessa's face changed.
Only for an instant.
Then she knelt beside Noah again.
“Baby, remember what we talked about?”
Elena felt the boy's hand tighten around hers.
Vanessa smiled.
“Sometimes our imaginations make scary things seem real.”
“Please don't,” Noah whispered.
Richard stepped between them.
“Get away from him.”
Vanessa froze.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“Richard!”
“Now.”
She rose slowly.
Every guest within earshot pretended not to be listening.
But nobody moved.
Richard turned toward Daniel.
“Take Noah and Elena inside. Dr. Shaw stays with them.”
Vanessa caught his sleeve.
“You cannot seriously believe I would hurt him.”
Richard looked down at her hand.
“Then you won't mind answering questions.”
She released him.
As Daniel guided the others toward the house, Elena glanced backward.
Vanessa stood motionless beside the broken glasses.
Her expression was no longer frightened.
It was calculating.
And she was looking at Daniel's phone.
Inside the mansion, Noah refused to leave Elena's side.
Even when Dr. Shaw tried to clean his scratch, he kept one hand on her wrist.
“She's not going away?” he asked.
“No,” Elena said.
“Promise?”
“I promise I'll stay until your daddy comes back.”
Dr. Shaw finished examining Elena's shoulder.
“You'll need stitches, and I still want an X-ray.”
Elena nodded.
“Okay.”
Daniel entered carrying a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a small steel component with a broken locking pin.
He placed it on the table.
“Elena, have you seen this before?”
She leaned forward.
“No.”
“It came from the base of the display.”
“What does it do?”
“According to the installation supervisor, it locks the rear stabilizer.”
Elena examined the steel pin.
The fracture looked clean.
Too clean.
“Was it broken by the fall?”
“That's what we're trying to determine.”
Noah leaned closer.
“That's the shiny thing.”
Daniel looked at him.
“This?”
Noah nodded.
“Vanessa made it turn.”
“How?”
The boy demonstrated with his fingers.
A twisting motion.
Then a push.
Elena remembered the brief vibration.
The soft metallic sound.
The glasses shifting.
Her stomach tightened.
Daniel asked another question.
“Did you see anyone else near the tower?”
Noah's face changed.
He looked toward the door.
Then he whispered, “The man with the blue hands.”
Elena frowned.
“Blue hands?”
“He had blue stuff on them.”
“Paint?”
Noah shook his head.
“Like Daddy's birthday cake.”
“Blue frosting?”
“Maybe.”
Daniel wrote something down.
“What did this man look like?”
Noah thought carefully.
“He was tall.”
“Anything else?”
“He smelled bad.”
“Like what?”
“Like the garage.”
Daniel and Elena exchanged a look.
Oil.
Grease.
Machinery.
The rear service area had been accessible through a loading corridor used by catering and maintenance crews.
Someone could have reached the pedestal without crossing the terrace.
Elena touched the edge of the table.
“Mr. Mercer?”
“Yes?”
“Just before the tower fell, I saw an arm behind it.”
Daniel looked up.
“Whose?”
“I couldn't see the face.”
“What did you see?”
“A black sleeve and a silver watch.”
Daniel's eyes sharpened.
“Anything distinctive?”
Elena closed her eyes.
She replayed the moment.
The glass.
The pedestal.
The hand disappearing.
“There was something red on the watch.”
“A red strap?”
“No.”
She concentrated.
“A red triangle. On the dial.”
Daniel stopped writing.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
He stood.
“Stay here.”
Before he could leave, Noah spoke.
“The man has a funny name.”
Daniel turned.
“What name?”
Noah looked down at his wooden car.
“Vanessa called him Uncle Ray.”
Daniel went still.
“Ray?”
The child nodded.
“She said, 'Ray, do it before the speech.'”
Elena felt a chill.
Daniel immediately took out his phone.
He called Richard.
“Sir, we have a second name.”
Richard answered something Elena couldn't hear.
Daniel glanced toward the closed door.
“Raymond Whitmore.”
Vanessa's older brother.
The man who had been appointed vice president of security operations for the Vance Foundation only six months earlier.
The man Daniel had warned Richard not to hire.
And the man wearing a distinctive silver watch with a red triangular marker when he arrived at the party.
Daniel ended the call.
A moment later, the mansion's security alarm sounded.
Then a guard's voice crackled over Daniel's radio.
“Mercer, we've got a problem.”
Daniel lifted the radio.
“Go ahead.”
“Raymond Whitmore just left through the west gate.”
“Stop him.”
“We tried.”
“What happened?”
A pause.
Then the guard answered.
“He drove through the barrier.”
Daniel was already moving when the next words came.
“And, sir?”
May you like
“What?”
“He took the terrace security recording with him.”
