Chapter 6 - THE SECOND DEATH
Police issued an alert for Victor.
Eleanor was brought back inside and warned that helping him would lead to charges. She insisted she had no idea where he was going.
I did not believe her, but fear had begun to crack her confidence.
“Why did Victor take the video?” I asked.
“Because Richard recorded a confession.”
“Whose confession?”
Eleanor looked at Detective Morales.
“I want immunity.”
The detective almost smiled. “You are in no position to demand it.”
“I can give you evidence about Margaret’s death and Richard’s crash.”
My knees nearly gave way.
Ethan moved closer, steadying me without touching.
Eleanor led us to Victor’s private wine cellar. Behind a rack of empty bottles, police found a locked cabinet containing insurance records, burner phones, and photographs of damaged medical equipment.
One phone had a saved voicemail from my father.
Victor, I know what you did to Margaret. I know Eleanor helped cover it. Meet me tomorrow, or I go to the police.
The voicemail was dated one day before my father’s crash.
Eleanor sat on a wooden crate.
“Richard was going to expose everything,” she said. “Victor told me he only wanted to scare him.”
“You believed that?” I asked.
“No.” Her voice dropped. “I chose not to ask.”
Detective Morales asked about my mother.
Eleanor stared at the floor.
“Margaret discovered Victor had approved counterfeit valve parts for hospital machines. She copied the invoices and arranged to meet a journalist. Victor went to the house before the meeting.”
“And you?”
“I followed him.”
“What happened?”
“They argued. Margaret said she would send us both to prison. Victor struck her. She fell and hit the edge of the fireplace.”
I could hear my own breathing.
“Was she alive?”
“Yes.”
The word destroyed something inside me.
“She was breathing when you left her?”
Eleanor covered her face. “Victor poured fuel in the study. I should have stopped him.”
“You should have called an ambulance.”
“I was afraid.”
“You were not afraid when you married my father.”
She looked up sharply.
“I married Richard to control what he knew. Victor thought it would protect us.”
For years, I had believed Eleanor took me in after tragedy.
She had moved into our home to watch the child of the woman she abandoned.
Detective Morales received a call.
Victor’s car had been found near an abandoned quarry. Blood was on the driver’s seat, but Victor was gone.
A map lay on the passenger floor.
One location had been circled.
The old Hawthorne equipment factory.
Ethan checked his phone. “The factory is scheduled for demolition at noon.”
It was already eleven twenty.
Then Rosa called from the manor.
Her voice was breathless.
“Claire, Eleanor is gone.”
I turned.
The crate where Eleanor had been sitting was empty.
May you like
On the wall behind it, a narrow service door stood open.
She Came Back
