Chương 11
Celeste felt the fluorescent light above them, the hard chair beneath her, and the edge of her notebook pressing into her palm.
“You framed me.”
“It was never discovered.”
“Because I resigned.”
“Yes.”
“And years later, Gabriel knew it was there.”
Neri’s face answered before he spoke.
“I told him about your history when he asked who Elias had hired. He obtained old committee records. I mentioned the bag.”
“The vial was empty then.”
“Yes.”
“Who filled it with arsenic?”
“I don’t know.”
Vega said, “Who knew the bag was at the mansion?”
“Gabriel.”
Celeste closed the notebook.
For years she had imagined the hospital injustice as a machine: committees, policies, donors, liability meetings, people who made cowardly decisions without ever considering themselves cruel.
Now the machine had a face.
It was tired, bruised, and asking her to understand the arrangement.
“Why did you want to speak with me?” she asked.
Neri’s eyes filled, though he did not cry.
“Because Gabriel tried to kill me.”
“That isn’t remorse.”
“No.”
“At least you’ve stopped pretending.”
He breathed unsteadily. “The final dose was not mine. When Elias convulsed, Gabriel called and said the plan had changed. He told me to come to the mansion, then later to meet him at the condominium site. Men were waiting.”
“Names?”
“I never saw them before.”
“Would you testify?”
His face tightened with fear.
Vega said, “That is the only useful question left.”
Neri stared at his broken hands.
“I need protection.”
Celeste stood.
“Your patients needed protection.”
She left before he could answer.
Gabriel was arrested the next morning on charges related to evidence tampering, conspiracy, and attempted murder.
He made bail by evening.
The arrest did not end anything.
It divided the Cade businesses, frightened lenders, and turned the mansion into a gathering place for men who spoke quietly about loyalty while choosing sides. Several senior managers insisted Gabriel had been trying to save the legitimate companies from Elias’s increasingly erratic leadership. Others believed the poisoning proved he was too ambitious to trust.
No one appeared troubled by the idea of removing Elias.
They disagreed only about the method.
The board meeting remained scheduled for Friday.
Gabriel intended to attend.
His attorneys argued that Neri was an admitted poisoner seeking leniency and that the digital records could have been manipulated. They described Celeste as a disgruntled former employee with a personal obsession and a history of medication irregularities.
A photograph appeared online showing Celeste opening Elias’s water bottle at the hospital.
The caption claimed she controlled everything he consumed.
By Thursday afternoon, protesters stood outside the mansion. Some carried signs accusing Elias of receiving special treatment because he was wealthy. Others claimed Gabriel was a reformer framed by criminals. A third group seemed mostly interested in being on camera.
Celeste watched from the second-floor window.
Below, a man dressed as the Grim Reaper sold bottled water for five dollars.
Silas came beside her.
“The police tested his bottles,” he said.
“Of course they did.”
“They are clean.”
“That’s almost disappointing.”
Silas allowed himself a small smile.
His daughter and grandson had entered protective housing. He had not seen them since turning himself in. The separation wore through his careful posture. Sometimes Celeste found him standing in rooms after everyone else left, as though he had forgotten what task brought him there.
“Why are you still here?” she asked.
“The household requires management.”
“The household tried to kill its owner.”
“Most households have difficult weeks.”
She glanced at him.
His face remained solemn.
“That was humor,” he said.
“I recognized the outline.”
The board meeting would take place in the mansion’s old library because Elias refused to appear by video. He could walk short distances with a cane, though each step caused pain. Celeste argued for postponement.
He refused.
“If I don’t attend, Gabriel wins without answering anything.”
“He has been charged with attempted murder.”
“He has also made payroll for six months while I was ill. Half the board believes he saved the companies.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
The answer irritated her.
Elias stood before the mirror while Silas adjusted his black suit jacket. Severe weight loss had changed the fit. The shoulders remained broad, but the fabric hung loosely at his waist.
“Gabriel reduced debt,” Elias said. “Closed three cash businesses that attracted investigations. Negotiated labor agreements I had delayed. He did the work.”
“And poisoned you.”
“People prefer useful criminals to difficult victims.”
Celeste held out his medication.
He checked the label, lot number, seal, and tablet against the printed record before swallowing it.
The ritual had become automatic.
“You should let the police handle the meeting,” she said.
“The police don’t control voting shares.”
“You could transfer authority temporarily.”
“To whom?”
“Someone who hasn’t tried to murder you.”
“That eliminates family.”
He said it lightly, but no one laughed.
Before the meeting, Detective Vega arrived with news that changed the case again.
The threatening man who approached Silas’s daughter had been identified from a traffic camera. He worked for a private security subcontractor paid through Gabriel’s office.
But his instructions had not come from Gabriel.
They came from Livia Cade, Elias’s older sister.
Livia had lived at the mansion since their mother died. She managed the family foundation, organized memorials and charity events, and rarely attended business meetings. Celeste knew her as a composed woman in her early forties who wore dark dresses, spoke softly, and never entered Elias’s bedroom without knocking.
She had visited the hospital once and stood at the foot of his bed for less than ten minutes.
When Elias asked whether she was afraid, Livia had replied, “I have been afraid of this family since I was twelve.”
No one understood the sentence then.
Vega found Livia in the chapel at the rear of the mansion.
She came to the library without resistance.
Gabriel was already seated beside his attorneys. When he saw his sister enter with police, he stood.
“Livia?”
May you like
She did not look at him.
Elias sat at the head of the long table. Celeste remained behind him, though she had no official role in the meeting. Silas stood near the doors.
