Chapter 3 - THE HOUSEKEEPER WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
By sunrise, Blackwood Manor had become a crime scene.
Police vehicles filled the circular driveway.
Officers searched the grounds.
Peter Langford was missing.
His phone had been found smashed beside a country road.
There was no sign of him.
Eleanor remained inside the manor with two attorneys.
She had not been arrested.
That fact made Claire furious.
“So she pushes me down the stairs.”
“A witness disappears.”
“And she gets to sit in her drawing room drinking coffee?”
Mara stood beside Claire’s hospital bed.
“I arrest people when I have enough evidence to keep them arrested.”
“You have footage.”
“Three seconds of footage that appeared after someone deleted forty-seven seconds.”
“That still shows her hands on me.”
“It shows contact.”
“It doesn’t clearly show force.”
Claire looked at Ethan.
“This is what money buys.”
Ethan did not defend his family.
That surprised her.
Instead he looked at Mara.
“What are you missing?”
“The original security file.”
“And Peter.”
“And a motive.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“I can give you twenty million motives.”
Everyone looked at her.
Claire continued.
“That’s how much was missing.”
Ethan frowned.
“You said four point eight.”
“That was what they accused me of stealing.”
“I found evidence that the real number was much larger.”
“How much larger?”
“At least twenty million.”
Mara pulled out her notebook.
“From the foundation?”
“And other Blackwood accounts.”
Ethan sat down.
“My father knew?”
“Yes.”
“Did Eleanor?”
Claire looked toward the window.
“She knew I knew something.”
“That was enough.”
Rosa Delgado arrived at the hospital shortly after eight.
She carried Claire’s blue handbag.
The moment she entered, she locked the door.
Ethan noticed her hands shaking.
“Rosa?”
She placed the bag on Claire’s bed.
“I shouldn’t be here.”
Claire sat up carefully.
“What happened?”
Rosa looked at Ethan.
“Your mother asked me to lie.”
His jaw tightened.
“About tonight?”
“About three years ago.”
Claire went completely still.
Rosa’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire stared at her.
“What did you do?”
Rosa pulled a small flash drive from her pocket.
“I kept something.”
Ethan took it.
“What?”
“Security backups.”
Claire’s breathing stopped for a second.
“From when?”
“The night you left.”
Rosa nodded.
“Mrs. Blackwood told me the system had malfunctioned.”
“She ordered me to erase everything from that week.”
“I did what she asked.”
Claire looked devastated.
“Why?”
“My husband was dying.”
“She was paying for his treatment.”
Rosa’s voice broke.
“She told me if I refused, the insurance would disappear.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Rosa cried silently.
“I hated myself.”
“I still do.”
Claire opened her eyes again.
“What did you keep?”
“One file.”
“Why?”
“Because I saw something I couldn’t forget.”
Ethan plugged the flash drive into his laptop.
A video appeared.
Date stamped three years earlier.
The west office.
Claire entered first.
She carried financial documents.
Richard Blackwood followed.
They spoke for several minutes.
There was no audio.
Then Claire left.
Richard remained.
Twenty minutes later, Eleanor entered.
She was not alone.
A man followed her.
His face was partially hidden from the camera.
Tall.
Gray suit.
Silver watch.
He carried a leather portfolio.
Ethan leaned toward the screen.
“Who is that?”
Rosa shook her head.
“I never saw his face.”
The man placed documents on Richard’s desk.
Richard became angry.
He pointed toward the door.
Eleanor grabbed his arm.
Richard pulled away.
Then the stranger leaned close to Richard.
Whatever he said made Richard freeze.
A minute later, Eleanor and the stranger left.
Richard sat alone.
He lowered his head into his hands.
Claire whispered.
“That was six days before he died.”
Rosa nodded.
“There’s more.”
The next video loaded.
Claire appeared outside Eleanor’s office.
She was crying.
Eleanor stood in front of her.
This recording had sound.
“You’re finished here.”
Claire’s younger voice shook.
“I didn’t steal anything.”
“The auditors disagree.”
“You created those transfers.”
“Careful.”
“Richard knows.”
Eleanor smiled.
“Richard won’t be protecting you.”
Claire stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“You should leave before Ethan learns what else you’ve done.”
“What else?”
Eleanor lifted an envelope.
She removed photographs.
Claire took them.
Her face drained of color.
Ethan paused the video.
“What photographs?”
Claire looked away.
“Fake ones.”
“Of what?”
“Me with another man.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
He remembered them.
Claire leaving a hotel.
A man touching her arm.
Another image that appeared to show them kissing.
He had never asked where the photographs came from.
His mother had handed them to him.
“She told me a private investigator took them.”
Claire laughed softly.
“The man was my cousin.”
Ethan stared at her.
“What?”
“Michael Bennett.”
“He flew in because my mother had surgery.”
“The angle made it look like we were kissing.”
“We weren’t.”
Ethan looked sick.
Claire continued.
“You didn’t ask me.”
“I tried to tell you.”
“You told me the pictures spoke for themselves.”
Ethan had no answer.
Rosa pressed play.
The video continued.
Claire threw the photographs onto the floor.
“You’re lying.”
Eleanor stepped closer.
“Ethan won’t think so.”
“Why are you doing this?”
Eleanor smiled.
“Because my son was happy before you arrived.”
“No.”
“He was obedient before I arrived.”
Eleanor’s expression hardened.
“Leave this family.”
Claire stood her ground.
“Not until Richard goes to the police.”
For the first time, Eleanor looked afraid.
Then she said something that made the hospital room go silent.
“Richard is not going to the police.”
Claire stared at the screen.
Ethan’s face turned white.
Mara immediately reached for the laptop.
“I need this copied.”
Rosa nodded.
“There’s another recording.”
The next clip was from the manor garage.
Date.
Two days before Richard died.
Eleanor walked toward a black sedan.
The same unidentified man followed her.
This time the camera captured his profile for less than a second.
Ethan froze the image.
His expression changed.
Claire noticed.
“You know him.”
Ethan said nothing.
“Ethan.”
He zoomed in.
The man was older now.
But the features were unmistakable.
Mara looked at him.
“Who is he?”
Ethan leaned back slowly.
“My uncle.”
Claire frowned.
“Your father’s brother?”
“Yes.”
“Julian Blackwood.”
Claire stared at the screen.
“I thought Julian moved to Europe years ago.”
“He did.”
Ethan looked at the date.
“Or that’s what we were told.”
Rosa reached into her purse again.
“There’s something else.”
She placed an old cell phone on the bed.
“I found this under the driver’s seat of Richard’s car after he died.”
Ethan looked at her.
“You never turned it in?”
“I tried.”
“Mrs. Blackwood took it from me.”
“How do you have it?”
“I stole it back yesterday.”
Claire almost smiled.
Rosa looked terrified.
“I think she knows.”
The phone had no password.
There was one saved voice memo.
Ethan pressed play.
Richard’s voice filled the room.
“If anything happens to me, Julian is involved.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
Richard continued.
“Eleanor thinks she can control him.”
“She can’t.”
“Claire found the transfers.”
“That makes her a target.”
“If I don’t make it through tomorrow, Ethan needs to know his mother chose Julian over this family.”
A loud sound occurred in the background.
Richard stopped speaking.
Then another voice appeared.
Female.
Eleanor.
“Richard?”
The recording ended.
No one spoke.
Finally Ethan stood.
“I’m going home.”
Claire grabbed his hand.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You heard him.”
“That’s exactly why you don’t walk into that house angry.”
“He was my father.”
“And Eleanor is your mother.”
“That stopped mattering when she helped kill him.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
Ethan looked at Claire.
“You’re defending her?”
“I’m stopping you from making the same mistake you made with me.”
The words landed hard.
“Don’t decide what happened before you have all of it.”
Ethan slowly sat down again.
Mara nodded.
“She’s right.”
Ethan laughed without humor.
“Apparently she usually is.”
Rosa’s phone buzzed.
She glanced down.
Her expression vanished.
Claire noticed.
“What is it?”
Rosa did not answer.
“Rosa?”
She showed them the screen.
A photograph had arrived from an unknown number.
It showed Rosa entering the hospital fifteen minutes earlier.
Taken from across the street.
Beneath it was one sentence.
YOU KEPT THE WRONG THING.
Mara immediately went to the window.
“Everybody stay inside.”
Rosa’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She looked at Mara.
“Answer it.”
Rosa placed it on speaker.
No one spoke at first.
Then Eleanor’s voice filled the room.
“Rosa.”
The housekeeper began trembling.
Ethan stared at the phone.
His mother continued.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
Rosa forced herself to answer.
“No.”
“You always were a terrible liar.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“Mom.”
Silence.
Then Eleanor laughed softly.
“Of course you’re there.”
Ethan’s voice became cold.
“Where is Peter?”
“I have no idea.”
“Where is Uncle Julian?”
A pause.
For the first time, Eleanor did not answer immediately.
That pause said enough.
Ethan continued.
“Dad knew.”
Another pause.
“Dad recorded you.”
Eleanor’s voice changed.
“Come home.”
“Why?”
“Because there are things Claire never told you.”
Claire stiffened.
Ethan looked at her.
“What things?”
Eleanor ignored him.
“Come home alone.”
“Then I’ll tell you why your father really died.”
The call disconnected.
Claire whispered.
“She’s separating us.”
Ethan looked at the dark phone screen.
“I know.”
Then Rosa suddenly gasped.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
Claire turned.
“What?”
Rosa pointed toward her purse.
The zipper was open.
She had closed it when she arrived.
Inside was a folded white card.
Mara pulled on gloves and removed it.
Three words were written across the front.
ASK CLAIRE ABOUT PARIS.
May you like
Ethan looked at Claire.
And for the first time since the staircase, Claire looked genuinely cornered.
