Chapter 15 - The Second Set of Cutters
By morning, the Harrington estate had become a crime scene.
Emily refused to return until police finished searching it.
She stayed at a secure hospital suite while doctors monitored her baby.
The child was unharmed.
Emily cried when she heard the heartbeat.
Rosa sat beside Sofia three rooms away.
Sofia had required six stitches.
Nothing more.
Nathan underwent surgery under police guard.
Mercer survived.
Detective Keller arrived shortly after sunrise.
“We found something.”
Emily sat up.
“In the maintenance room at the estate, we recovered another pair of cutters.”
“Another pair?”
“They have trace metal from the chandelier cable.”
Emily frowned.
“So Nathan was telling the truth.”
“Partly.”
Keller placed photographs on the table.
Security footage showed a man entering the ballroom maintenance corridor the afternoon before the collapse.
The image was grainy.
But Emily recognized him.
“Thomas.”
Thomas Blake had managed the Harrington estate for eleven years.
He controlled staff schedules.
Security access.
Repairs.
Deliveries.
And he had been standing among the guests when Rosa pushed Emily.
“He watched the chandelier fall.”
Keller nodded.
“He also disappeared before officers returned after Nathan escaped.”
Emily remembered Thomas comforting Margaret.
Offering water.
Telling guests everything would be okay.
“He helped Nathan.”
“We believe so.”
“Why?”
Keller hesitated.
“We searched his apartment.”
“What did you find?”
“Financial records.”
Thomas had received nearly three hundred thousand dollars over four years.
The payments came from companies connected to Mercer.
Emily stared at him.
“So Thomas worked for Mercer.”
“And Nathan.”
“Both?”
Keller nodded.
Emily understood.
Mercer had planted a watcher inside the estate.
Nathan believed Thomas was helping him.
Mercer was using Thomas to monitor Nathan.
“How many people were spying on each other in that house?”
Keller did not answer.
Emily looked out the hospital window.
Her marriage had been a lie.
Her mother had been murdered.
Her husband had tried to kill her.
Her father-in-law had spent his final years hiding evidence.
Her mother-in-law had concealed a living child.
And still the conspiracy was not finished.
Keller’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Emily sat forward.
Keller ended the call.
“Thomas Blake was just seen entering St. Anne’s Cemetery.”
Emily frowned.
“Why would he go there?”
Keller looked at her.
“Claire Harrington is buried at St. Anne’s.”
Emily felt cold.
May you like
Thomas was not running away.
He was going back to where the story had started.
