Chương 3
“You stayed.”
“She asked me to.”
“Why you?”
Elena shrugged.
“I’ve been there a long time.”
“That doesn’t answer it.”
“No.”
Holbrook waited.
Elena looked at the angel in the catalog.
“Because I don’t gossip.”
“Do you?”
“I guess that depends on how this goes.”
Holbrook almost smiled.
It helped.
Elena continued.
Richard arrived from the office shortly before seven. He ate nothing. He drank sparkling water and asked twice whether Daniel had called.
At eight thirty, Evelyn came downstairs dressed to go out, then changed her mind.
At nine fourteen, Richard threw a glass in the library.
“How do you know the time?”
“I was texting my sister.”
“What did you text?”
Elena took out her phone.
She scrolled.
There.
9:14 p.m.
Boss threw another glass. If I ever get rich, promise me I’m still allowed to use a trash can.
Holbrook read it.
“Your sister reply?”
Maria’s answer appeared below.
Rich people hate trash cans. It’s in the Constitution.
Despite herself, Elena smiled.
Then it was gone.
“At ten fifty-eight,” she said, “Daniel came through the side entrance.”
“You saw him?”
“Yes.”
“Could anybody else have?”
“Cal.”
“Why?”
“Cal was in the security room.”
“Did Daniel sign in?”
“Family doesn’t sign in.”
“Camera?”
“There are cameras at every exterior entrance.”
Holbrook wrote something.
“What was Daniel wearing?”
“Dark blue suit. White shirt. No tie. Gold cufflinks.”
“The one from the coffin?”
“Yes.”
“How certain?”
“I carried that pair upstairs from the jeweler last Christmas.”
Holbrook’s pen stopped.
“Tell me about that.”
“Mrs. Cole had them engraved for him. D on one. C on the other.”
“And the one at the funeral?”
“D.”
Daniel had not looked like a man arriving to kill his father.
That was something Elena kept coming back to.
He had looked annoyed.
Tired.
Wet around the shoulders from a misting rain that ended before midnight.
He came through the side door holding his phone and said, “Is he still awake?”
Elena had said, “He’s in the library.”
Daniel rolled his eyes.
“Of course he is.”
Then he noticed her expression.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Elena.”
“You should probably not go in there.”
That made him laugh once.
Not happily.
“Best advice I’ve had all week.”
He went in anyway.
The argument began quietly.
Most bad arguments did.
Richard’s voice carried first.
“You signed it.”
Daniel answered too low for Elena to hear.
Then Richard again.
“You signed your name.”
A pause.
Then Daniel.
“I signed what you told me to sign.”
Evelyn came from the sitting room.
She had removed her shoes and was carrying them in one hand, a habit she would have hated anyone outside the house knowing about.
“What are they doing?”
Elena said, “Arguing.”
Evelyn’s mouth tightened.
“What about?”
“I don’t know.”
That was true then.
Evelyn put her shoes on the floor.
The absurdity of it stayed with Elena afterward: two black pumps standing neatly side by side outside the library while voices rose behind the door.
Richard shouted, “You don’t get to blame me because you were too weak to read your own paperwork.”
Daniel said something.
A chair scraped.
Evelyn started toward the library.
Then Richard said, clearly enough that Elena heard every word:
“You’re done. Monday morning, you’re off the board.”
Evelyn stopped.
Daniel shouted, “You can’t do that.”
“I can do whatever the votes permit.”
“What votes?”
Richard laughed.
Daniel did not.
A heavy impact sounded inside the room.
Not a gunshot.
Not furniture breaking.
A body against something solid.
Evelyn opened the door.
Elena followed three steps behind.
Daniel stood near the fireplace with one sleeve torn at the cuff.
Richard was on one knee beside a leather chair.
Blood ran from his lower lip.
There was a small smear of it across Daniel’s wrist.
Nobody spoke for a second.
Then Richard pushed himself upright.
“Get out.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Dad—”
“Get out of my house.”
“You fell.”
“I said get out.”
Daniel looked toward his mother.
Evelyn gave him one small nod.
Leave.
Daniel left.
That was the last time Elena saw him that night.
Holbrook said, “Richard was conscious?”
“Very.”
“Did he appear seriously injured?”
“No.”
“Did he hit his head?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said there was an impact.”
“I didn’t see it.”
“What happened next?”
Elena’s fingers tightened.
“Mr. Cole sat down.”
Richard’s anger seemed to leak out of him almost as soon as Daniel was gone.
He touched his mouth, looked at the blood on his fingers, and said, “Damn idiot.”
Evelyn went to him.
“Let me see.”
“Don’t fuss.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“I have eyes.”
“Richard.”
He pushed her hand away.
Not violently.
Impatiently.
Then he looked toward Elena.
“Get me some ice.”
She went to the kitchen.
She was gone less than two minutes.
When she came back, Cal Mercer was in the library.
Richard had moved from the chair to the sofa.
Or someone had moved him.
Elena could not tell.
Cal stood near the fireplace.
Evelyn was kneeling beside her husband.
Richard’s eyes were open.
His breathing sounded wrong.
Not dramatic. Not gasping.
Just shallow.
“Elena, call an ambulance,” Evelyn said.
Cal said, “Wait.”
Elena froze.
Evelyn looked at him.
Cal crouched near Richard.
“Sir? Can you hear me?”
Richard opened his eyes wider.
“Don’t,” he muttered.
Cal leaned closer.
“Don’t what?”
“No hospital.”
Evelyn said, “Richard, stop.”
He tried to sit up.
He could not.
Elena reached for her phone.
Cal stood.
“Give us a second.”
“What?”
“I said give us a second.”
“He needs an ambulance.”
“Probably. Just—give us a second.”
Elena looked at Evelyn.
Mrs. Cole was still kneeling.
Call, Elena expected her to say.
Instead Evelyn said nothing.
That silence lasted perhaps ten seconds.
In Elena’s memory, it lasted years.
Richard tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
Then his eyes closed.
Elena dialed 911.
Cal told her to hang up.
She didn’t.
Paramedics arrived nine minutes later.
May you like
By then Richard was unconscious.
They worked on him in the library before taking him out through the side entrance.
