Chapter 3 - The Key in Her Hand
Mara hadn't seen her mother's name written anywhere but a gravestone in nineteen years.
EVELYN BENNETT.
She closed Sophie's fingers around the key. “Who gave you this?”
“A lady with a blue scarf.”
“What did she look like?”
Sophie shrugged. “Like she was mad at the whole world.”
“Fair description,” Adrian said, although his eyes stayed serious.
A paramedic took Sophie to find her parents. Mara watched until the child was safely inside the ambulance. Only then did she let herself shake.
Lucian noticed the key. “Where did you get that?”
“Why? Planning to steal it?”
“You don't know what you're holding.”
“Then explain.”
He looked toward the cordoned-off mansion. “Not here.”
Mara turned to Adrian. “Is he always this helpful?”
“On his best days.”
Lucian pulled out his phone. A photograph showed a burning car on a rain-dark road. “Your mother was a bookkeeper for the Voss Foundation. She didn't die in an accident. She was murdered after copying our private ledger.”
Mara felt the ground tilt. “My father told me—”
“Your father was told what to say,” Lucian said.
Adrian stepped between them. “Slow down. Start with how you knew that box was a trigger.”
“I knew the symbol,” Lucian said. “Our father used it when he was moving money through shell charities. Lot thirteen was his signal.”
“Dad's dead,” Adrian said.
“Yes,” Lucian replied. “That doesn't mean his business is.”
A police detective approached with two uniformed officers. “Mr. Voss? We'd like a word about the assault inside.”
Adrian held up both hands. “I took a weapon off a guard.”
“We recovered no weapon.”
“Then you looked in the wrong place.”
The detective's gaze shifted to Mara's dress, her bare shoulders, the blood on her arm. “And you are?”
“Mara Bennett.”
The detective stopped writing. His smile disappeared. He touched his earpiece.
“Copy that,” he murmured. “We have her.”
Adrian caught the change. “Mara, get behind me.”
May you like
The detective drew his gun and aimed it straight at her heart.
THE LAST DANCE AT BLACKTHORN HALL •
