Chapter 6 - THE SECRET UNDER THE ROSE
Police searched every floor of the hotel.
No one found the masked intruder.
The Ashford gala ended in chaos.
Guests were escorted out one by one.
Phones were collected as evidence.
Eleanor was taken away in handcuffs.
Julian was transported to the hospital under police guard.
Evelyn and Lily were placed in a private room upstairs.
Nathaniel stood outside the door.
“You should both go somewhere safe.”
Evelyn looked through the window at the city lights.
“I have nowhere safe.”
Lily was asleep on the couch.
Her stuffed rabbit rested under her chin.
Nathaniel lowered his voice.
“Margaret called me three days before she died.”
Evelyn turned around.
“My mother called you?”
“She said she had evidence of a financial network operating through the Ashford Foundation.”
“What kind of network?”
“Bribes.”
“Shell charities.”
“Money paid to judges, police officers, contractors, and politicians.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“Why didn’t you investigate?”
“I tried.”
“Then your mother disappeared before she could meet me.”
“She died from a heart attack.”
“That is what the medical report said.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled with anger.
“You knew it might be false.”
“I suspected.”
“And you said nothing to me.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“You let me work for Eleanor.”
“You let my daughter walk into her ballroom.”
“I did not know Eleanor had found the key.”
A soft voice came from behind them.
“She didn’t find it.”
Lily was awake.
She sat up slowly.
“Grandma told me never to show anyone.”
Evelyn knelt beside her.
“When did Grandma give you the key?”
“The night before she went to heaven.”
Evelyn’s breath caught.
Her mother had died two years earlier.
Lily had been only four.
“Did she say anything else?”
Lily nodded.
“She said the rose remembers.”
Nathaniel looked at Evelyn.
“Inside the rose.”
Evelyn turned toward the photograph in her memory.
The diamond brooch had a rose shape.
But the key also carried a rose.
She took the necklace from Lily.
The tiny engraved rose looked solid.
Nathaniel used a small knife to press its center.
A hidden panel clicked open.
Inside was a black microchip.
Evelyn stared at it.
“The chip was in the key all along.”
Nathaniel placed it in an evidence sleeve.
“That means the empty brooch was a decoy.”
A knock sounded at the door.
One of Nathaniel’s officers entered.
“Commissioner, we have a problem.”
“What happened?”
“Julian disappeared from the hospital.”
Nathaniel’s face darkened.
“He was under guard.”
“The two officers watching him were found unconscious.”
Evelyn looked toward Lily.
Nathaniel stepped into the hallway.
“Lock this floor down.”
The lights flickered.
A message appeared on the room’s television.
No one had touched the remote.
The screen showed a live video of Eleanor sitting inside a police transport van.
A masked figure stood behind her.
The figure raised a gun.
A distorted voice filled the room.
“Bring the chip to the old Ashford theater.”
May you like
“Come alone.”
“Or Eleanor dies before she tells you who killed your father.”
