Chapter 6 - THE SECOND GLASS
Arthur spent the night in custody.
By sunrise, every television station in Chicago carried his photograph.
Hotel billionaire arrested.
Federal judge dead.
Wife missing.
Arthur sat alone.
Then his attorney entered.
Rachel Bennett.
She dropped a folder onto the table.
“You have a problem.”
“I gathered that.”
“The substance found in your safe matches what was found in Whitmore’s system.”
“Planted.”
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
Rachel leaned closer.
“Arthur, someone has built an almost perfect case.”
“Then find the flaw.”
“There is one.”
Arthur looked up.
“The wineglass.”
“What about it?”
“The lab tested it.”
Arthur waited.
Rachel said:
“There was nothing poisonous in your wine.”
Arthur stared at her.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Maya stopped me for no reason?”
“No.”
Rachel opened another report.
“There was something in the decanter.”
Arthur leaned forward.
“But not poison.”
“What?”
“A sedative.”
Arthur stared.
“Enough to kill me?”
“No.”
“Enough to make you unconscious for several hours.”
Arthur slowly understood.
Eleanor had never intended to murder him at the gala.
She intended to incapacitate him.
“Why?”
Rachel placed another photograph down.
“Because someone booked a private jet under your passport.”
Arthur looked at the departure time.
9:30 p.m.
Forty-five minutes after the blackout.
Destination:
Cayman Islands.
Rachel continued.
“And someone transferred sixty-three million dollars from a Sterling family trust at 9:17.”
Arthur stared at her.
“To where?”
“An account opened in your name.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
Eleanor wanted him unconscious.
Then she intended to make it appear that he had murdered Whitmore, stolen millions, and fled the country.
Maya had accidentally destroyed the escape portion of the plan by stopping him from drinking.
Arthur looked at Rachel.
“Where is Eleanor?”
“We don’t know.”
Arthur thought about her smile.
Then remembered something.
“The second glass.”
Rachel frowned.
“What second glass?”
“At the head table.”
“Eleanor had wine too.”
Arthur leaned forward.
“Find her glass.”
Rachel called Daniel.
Ten minutes later, Daniel answered.
The glass had been recovered from the ballroom.
The lab tested it.
A fingerprint was found.
Not Eleanor’s.
Not Arthur’s.
Richard Sterling’s.
Arthur stared through the glass wall of the interview room.
His brother had been at the head table before the gala.
But Richard claimed he hadn’t entered the hotel until after Arthur’s arrest.
May you like
One of them was lying.
And Arthur was beginning to suspect Eleanor wasn’t working alone.
