Chapter 3 - THE ORIGINAL REPORT
Lucinda was waiting outside the office with her arms folded.
She had changed clothes.
The pale silk blouse she had worn earlier was gone.
Now she wore a dark coat and carried her handbag.
Andrew noticed immediately.
“Going somewhere?”
Lucinda’s mouth tightened.
“I refuse to stay in a house where a servant is turning your child against me.”
“Elizabeth isn’t going anywhere.”
“You’ve known that woman for five months.”
“And I’ve known you for forty years.”
Lucinda almost smiled.
“Exactly.”
Andrew stepped closer.
“That should make this easier.”
Her expression changed.
Andrew continued.
“Tell me exactly where you were when Caroline fell.”
Lucinda stared at him.
“We went through this seven months ago.”
“Then it should be easy to repeat.”
“I was downstairs.”
“Where?”
“In the library.”
“Doing what?”
“Calling Margaret.”
Andrew had read the statement enough times to remember that name.
Margaret Hale had been Lucinda’s college friend.
Police had confirmed that a phone call occurred at 9:17 p.m.
Caroline fell at approximately 9:22.
The call lasted eighteen minutes.
At the time, that seemed like an airtight alibi.
Andrew now remembered something else.
The library phone had a wireless handset.
Lucinda could have carried it anywhere in the house.
“Which phone did you use?”
Lucinda hesitated.
“The library phone.”
“The base or the cordless handset?”
Lucinda’s eyes flickered.
“I don’t remember.”
Andrew did.
Police had never asked.
A family friend had been interviewed.
A phone record had been collected.
Everyone had accepted the easiest explanation.
Andrew stepped back.
“You should leave.”
Lucinda’s face hardened.
“You’re serious.”
“Very.”
“And where exactly do you expect me to go?”
“You own an apartment in Boston.”
“That property is being renovated.”
“Then find a hotel.”
Lucinda leaned closer.
“You’re making a mistake.”
Andrew said nothing.
She lowered her voice.
“Caroline had secrets.”
His jaw tightened.
“What kind?”
“The kind wives don’t tell husbands.”
Andrew searched her face.
“You had seven months to tell me that.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“No.”
Andrew’s answer was immediate.
“You were protecting something.”
Lucinda walked toward the staircase.
At the landing, she stopped.
“You want to dig through Caroline’s death?”
She looked back at him.
“Fine.”
“But you may not like what you uncover.”
Andrew watched her leave.
When the front door closed, he returned to his office.
Elizabeth was sitting beside Alex.
The boy had finally fallen asleep.
Andrew opened the police file.
Photographs.
Witness statements.
Engineering reports.
Autopsy findings.
He forced himself to look through everything.
Then he stopped at a photograph of the west balcony.
The broken safety cable hung from the railing.
Near the severed end was a faint green fiber.
Andrew stared at it.
The original investigator had labeled it simply as “foreign textile material.”
No testing had been ordered.
He reached for the ribbon from Alex’s rabbit.
The shade looked almost identical.
Elizabeth stepped beside him.
“What is it?”
Andrew pointed.
“This green fiber was found where Caroline fell.”
Elizabeth looked at the ribbon.
Then at the photograph.
Andrew whispered.
“If these came from the same material, Lucinda didn’t cut Alex’s ribbon today because she hated the toy.”
Elizabeth understood immediately.
“She was trying to destroy something that reminded him of that night.”
Andrew nodded.
Then he noticed a handwritten line near the bottom of the evidence sheet.
EMERALD PENDANT NOT RECOVERED.
Andrew’s eyes narrowed.
Caroline’s missing necklace.
Alex’s story.
Lucinda demanding that Caroline give something back.
He closed the folder.
“I need the detective who handled this case.”
Elizabeth glanced toward the sleeping child.
“And Lucinda?”
Andrew looked at the security monitor beside his desk.
Lucinda’s car had already left the estate.
“I don’t think she’s running from me.”
May you like
He zoomed in on the driveway footage.
“She’s running to something.”
