Chapter 2 - THE GIRL WITH NO WAY OUT
Maya’s stomach dropped.
“That isn’t mine.”
Charles stared at the note.
MAYA DID IT.
Three words.
Three bullets.
The restaurant’s head of security, Daniel Price, stepped between Maya and the exit.
“Don’t move.”
“You saw the video!” Maya said. “You literally saw Eleanor put something in the decanter.”
“We saw a woman who looked like Mrs. Sterling.”
“It was her!”
Charles turned to Daniel.
“Call the police.”
Daniel nodded.
Maya exhaled.
Then Charles added, “And don’t let her leave either.”
Maya looked at him.
“What?”
“Until I understand what happened, nobody leaves.”
“You think I’m involved?”
“I think my wife just ran out of our anniversary dinner while carrying a note with your name on it.”
“She planted it!”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
Charles’s voice hardened.
“If I believed the first story I heard, Miss…”
“Reyes. Maya Reyes.”
“If I believed the first story I heard, Maya Reyes, I wouldn’t have survived in business long enough to build what I built.”
Maya almost laughed.
“You almost didn’t survive dinner.”
Charles flinched.
That landed.
Police arrived seven minutes later.
Detective Owen Mercer was a tired-looking man in his forties with a loosened tie and the expression of someone already irritated by rich people.
He watched the footage twice.
Then a third time.
“Where did this video come from?”
Maya lifted her phone.
“I recorded the monitor in the security office.”
“Why?”
“Because the camera system doesn’t let restaurant staff export clips without a manager password.”
Mercer narrowed his eyes.
“And what made you check the camera?”
Maya hesitated.
That was the part she had hoped nobody would ask yet.
Charles noticed.
“Answer him.”
“I saw Mrs. Sterling near the pantry.”
“So?”
“She wasn’t supposed to be there.”
Eleanor had arrived two hours early claiming she wanted to inspect the flowers.
Maya had found that strange.
But not frightening.
What frightened her came later.
Maya had walked past the pantry and heard Eleanor talking on the phone.
“You’ll get your money when he’s dead.”
Maya had stopped breathing.
Then Eleanor stepped out.
Their eyes met.
Eleanor smiled.
Not warmly.
Knowingly.
“You heard me, didn’t you?” she whispered.
Maya ran directly to security.
That was when she found the footage.
Mercer scribbled in his notebook.
“What exactly was Mrs. Sterling discussing?”
“I don’t know.”
“You didn’t hear anything else?”
Maya swallowed.
“I heard a name.”
Charles leaned forward.
“What name?”
“Adrian.”
The color left his face.
Mercer noticed.
“Who’s Adrian?”
Charles didn’t answer.
“Mr. Sterling?”
Charles stared at the floor.
“My son.”
Several people exchanged confused looks.
Maya frowned.
“I thought your son’s name was Noah.”
Charles looked at her.
“Noah is my youngest son.”
Maya waited.
Charles’s jaw tightened.
“Adrian Sterling died eleven years ago.”
Maya felt cold.
Mercer stopped writing.
“You’re telling me your wife was secretly talking to someone about payment, murder, and your dead son?”
Charles nodded once.
Then Daniel entered carrying a tablet.
“Mr. Sterling.”
“What?”
“We checked the building cameras.”
“Did you find Eleanor?”
“No.”
Daniel set the tablet down.
“But we found something else.”
A hallway camera showed Eleanor leaving the pantry.
Twenty seconds later, a second figure entered.
A man in a restaurant uniform.
He approached Charles’s decanter.
He touched it.
Then he looked directly into the camera.
Maya covered her mouth.
She knew him.
Mercer saw her reaction.
“Who is that?”
May you like
Maya could barely speak.
“My brother.”
