Chapter 10 - The Bottle in the Cabinet
Clara pressed record.
Her fingers barely worked.
Evelyn’s voice carried through the pantry door.
“His father’s Barolo. He’s the only one who’ll drink from it.”
Clara looked toward the dark hallway.
No footsteps.
No help.
On speakerphone, Otto Brennan said, “Victor needs the signatures first.”
“He’ll get them in the vestry.”
“And the girl?”
Clara’s stomach tightened.
Evelyn exhaled impatiently.
“Noel keeps the mother quiet until afterward.”
Clara almost dropped the phone.
Brennan said something too low to hear.
Then Evelyn answered clearly.
“Yes. Make it look like his heart. You said the medical report would hold.”
A floorboard creaked beneath Clara’s heel.
The conversation stopped.
“Who’s there?”
Clara stepped backward.
Her bad ankle caught the edge of a runner.
Pain shot up her leg.
The pantry door opened.
Evelyn stared at her.
Then at the phone.
“What did you hear?”
Clara ran.
Not fast.
Not gracefully.
She caught the stair rail and dragged herself upward as Evelyn called for someone behind her.
At the landing, Milo stepped out of the security room.
“Clara?”
She pushed the phone into his hands.
“Copy it.”
“What?”
“Now.”
Evelyn reached the bottom of the stairs.
“She’s been recording private conversations. She’s confused.”
Milo looked at Clara.
Clara could barely breathe.
“Listen.”
He did.
Thirty seconds later, he locked the security-room door.
Evelyn began pounding on it.
Milo called Raphael.
No answer.
Again.
Straight to voicemail.
Raphael had left an hour earlier for a meeting Victor requested at the harbor.
A final family discussion.
Clara leaned against the wall.
“Noel.”
Milo checked the guest-room camera.
Dora sat beside Noel’s bed, reading.
Safe.
For now.
He called Dora and told her to stay behind the locked door.
Then he sent the audio to Raphael’s attorney.
A loud crash came from downstairs.
Milo turned toward the screens.
The back entrance stood open.
Two men entered.
Neither belonged to the household staff.
Clara recognized one immediately.
He had been standing beside the sedan outside her apartment.
May you like
On the screen, he looked directly up at the camera.
Then the hallway feed went black.
