Chapter 2
The detective didn’t look surprised to see Vanessa.
That was the first thing I noticed.
He was tall, maybe fifty, with tired eyes and a gray suit that looked like he had slept in it.
Two uniformed officers followed him.
Daniel stepped away from his wife.
“Detective?”
The man stopped beside our table.
“Daniel Whitmore?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Detective Aaron Cole with Dallas Police.”
Vanessa immediately found her voice.
“This is ridiculous. Whatever that waitress told you is a lie.”
Detective Cole looked at her.
“I haven’t spoken to the waitress.”
Vanessa’s mouth closed.
The room seemed to shrink around us.
Guests whispered.
Phones appeared.
Daniel’s attorney, Richard Hale, hurried across the ballroom.
“Daniel, don’t say anything else.”
Daniel barely heard him.
He was staring at Vanessa.
“You knew they found that medication in Ethan’s blood.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“Of course I knew. You told me.”
“No.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I told you they found a substance. I never told you what it was.”
I felt cold.
Vanessa looked around.
For the first time, she seemed scared.
Detective Cole turned toward me.
“Miss, what’s your name?”
“Claire Bennett.”
“Claire, did you personally see Mrs. Whitmore put something into Mr. Whitmore’s drink?”
“Yes.”
“Do you still have the recording?”
Daniel handed him my phone.
Vanessa lunged.
It happened so fast that one officer had to grab her arm.
“Don’t touch that phone!”
Everybody stared.
She froze.
Detective Cole’s expression changed.
“Why are you worried about the phone?”
“I’m not worried.”
“You just tried to take evidence from my hand.”
“It’s not evidence.”
Daniel’s voice was low.
“It is now.”
Vanessa looked at him.
Something passed between them.
Ten years of marriage.
Money.
Secrets.
Whatever love had once been there.
Then Vanessa smiled.
It wasn’t warm.
It wasn’t nervous.
It was the coldest smile I had ever seen.
“You really want to do this in front of everyone, Daniel?”
Daniel looked around the ballroom.
“I think you already did.”
Detective Cole asked one of the officers to secure the wineglass.
Then he asked Vanessa to step away from the table.
She refused.
“You cannot arrest me because some employee filmed me holding a bottle.”
“We haven’t arrested you.”
“Then I’m leaving.”
“No.”
The detective’s voice remained calm.
“You’re staying while we determine what happened.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
Daniel suddenly looked at me.
“Claire.”
“Yes, sir?”
“What happened before you started recording?”
I explained everything.
Vanessa standing alone.
The tiny bottle.
Her finger stirring the wine.
The way she watched him return.
When I finished, Daniel gripped the back of a chair.
Richard put a hand on his shoulder.
“Daniel.”
“My brother died six months ago.”
His voice cracked.
Nobody interrupted him.
“He collapsed at my lake house. Vanessa was there.”
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“So were twelve other people.”
Daniel ignored her.
“He’d complained he felt dizzy after dinner. We thought he was tired.”
Detective Cole watched her carefully.
“Mrs. Whitmore, did you prepare his drink that evening?”
“No.”
Daniel looked up sharply.
“Yes, you did.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You made bourbon for Ethan and me.”
“I poured drinks for everyone.”
“No. You poured ours.”
Vanessa laughed once.
“You’re grieving. Your memory is unreliable.”
Daniel moved toward her.
Richard stopped him.
“Don’t.”
Detective Cole looked at Daniel.
“Your brother’s case was reopened this morning.”
My stomach dropped.
“This morning?” Daniel repeated.
Cole nodded.
“New evidence was delivered anonymously.”
Vanessa’s confidence disappeared.
“What evidence?”
Cole didn’t answer.
Daniel noticed.
“So you came here because of Ethan?”
“We came because someone told us we should watch your wife tonight.”
Silence.
Even Richard looked stunned.
Vanessa whispered, “Who?”
Cole’s eyes stayed on her.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
Vanessa turned toward Daniel.
“This is a setup.”
“By whom?”
“Her.”
She pointed at me.
I actually looked behind myself.
“Me?”
“You’ve been trying to get close to my husband for months.”
I almost laughed from shock.
“I’ve spoken to Mr. Whitmore maybe four times.”
“You’re obsessed with him.”
“Vanessa,” Daniel snapped.
She kept going.
“You filmed me because you planned this.”
“My phone shows exactly what happened.”
“It shows nothing.”
Detective Cole handed my phone to another officer.
“Send a copy to evidence.”
Vanessa’s eyes followed it.
That was when I knew the recording mattered more than she wanted anyone to believe.
Then Richard leaned close to Daniel.
“We need to get you somewhere private.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No. I want to hear everything.”
“You have two children upstairs.”
Vanessa went completely still.
Daniel’s face changed.
The gala was being held inside the Whitmore Grand, but Daniel and Vanessa had a private suite on the top floor where their children had been staying with their nanny during the event.
A boy named Oliver.
A girl named Sophie.
I had seen them around the hotel.
Oliver was nine.
Sophie was six.
Daniel looked toward the elevators.
“Where are the kids?”
Vanessa answered too quickly.
“With Lily.”
Lily was their nanny.
Daniel pulled out his phone.
He called.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
His face drained.
Vanessa sighed.
“Her phone is probably on silent.”
Daniel started walking.
Cole blocked him.
“Let my officers go first.”
“They’re my children.”
“And if somebody expected us to be here tonight, I’m not taking chances.”
Vanessa suddenly stepped backward.
Only one step.
But I saw it.
So did Detective Cole.
“Mrs. Whitmore,” he said, “where exactly are your children?”
“I told you.”
“Which suite?”
“Penthouse Four.”
Daniel stared at her.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
He looked horrified.
“They’re in Penthouse Two.”
Vanessa blinked.
“I misspoke.”
“You’ve lived here for three years.”
Daniel took another step toward her.
“You don’t forget where our children are.”
Vanessa’s lips parted.
Then the hotel fire alarm screamed.
Guests jumped.
Lights flashed red.
Hotel employees started directing everyone toward the exits.
A man shouted.
Someone dropped a glass.
The ballroom exploded into confusion.
Daniel ran toward the elevators.
Cole shouted after him.
“Whitmore!”
Vanessa moved in the opposite direction.
I saw her.
Nobody else did.
She slipped through a service door.
I didn’t think.
I followed.
The hallway behind the ballroom was empty.
“Mrs. Whitmore!”
She looked back.
Then ran.
My shoes slipped against the polished floor as I chased her.
She pushed through another door and entered the kitchen.
Cooks stared.
“Stop her!” I yelled.
Vanessa knocked a tray from a server’s hands and kept moving.
She reached the employee staircase.
I was ten feet behind her.
Then she turned.
There was something in her hand.
Not a gun.
A key card.
She swiped it against the security panel beside a maintenance door.
The door unlocked.
She disappeared inside.
I reached it before it shut.
Behind it was a narrow corridor leading toward the hotel’s administrative offices.
Vanessa ran straight for Daniel’s private office.
She knew exactly where she was going.
She unlocked it.
I grabbed the door.
She spun and shoved me.
I hit the wall.
“Stay out of my life!”
She rushed toward the desk.
She opened a drawer and started pulling out papers.
Then she grabbed a metal lighter from Daniel’s humidor.
I realized what she was doing.
“No!”
She lit the corner of a document.
I ran at her.
We crashed into the desk.
The burning paper fell onto the carpet.
I stamped it out.
Vanessa grabbed my hair.
I cried out.
She dragged me backward.
“You stupid girl!”
I elbowed free.
She reached for another file.
I pulled it away.
A photograph slid onto the floor.
Two men.
Daniel.
And his brother Ethan.
Behind them stood Vanessa.
Beside Vanessa stood another woman.
I recognized the woman instantly.
She had been at the gala.
She had spent most of the evening sitting alone near the stage.
She was Daniel’s mother.
Margaret Whitmore.
Vanessa saw the photograph in my hand.
Her face changed.
“Give me that.”
I turned it over.
There was writing on the back.
Ethan’s handwriting.
I knew because I had once delivered documents to his office.
Four words.
If anything happens to me.
Then another name.
Margaret.
Vanessa snatched for it.
The office door slammed open.
Detective Cole entered with two officers.
“Hands where I can see them!”
Vanessa froze.
Daniel appeared behind them, breathing hard.
He saw me.
He saw the scattered papers.
Then he saw the photograph.
“What is that?”
I handed it to him.
He turned it over.
His face went white.
“My mother?”
Vanessa began shaking her head.
“Daniel, don’t.”
He looked at her.
“What does my mother have to do with Ethan’s death?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Cole approached the desk.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed immediately.
“What?”
Daniel stared at him.
Cole lowered the phone slowly.
“The officers reached the penthouse.”
Daniel could barely breathe.
“And?”
“Your children are gone.”
Daniel stumbled backward.
May you like
Vanessa closed her eyes.
And for the first time all night, she looked relieved.
