“They believe you.”
“They’d better.”
The coffin lid creaked slightly as Victoria rested her hand on it.
“Do you think he knew?” she asked.
“Knew what?”
“About us.”
“No.”
“What about the financial transfers?”
Harrison paused.
“He had started asking questions.”
My thoughts raced.
Two weeks earlier, my chief financial officer had told me that money was moving through a consulting account I didn’t recognize.
When I asked Victoria about it, she claimed it was related to a charity project.
Harrison had advised me to take time away from work because stress was affecting my heart.
They had been buying time.
Preparing.
Victoria lowered her voice.
“I still can’t believe you kept the recorder.”
“I destroyed it.”
“You said you threw it away.”
“After I smashed it.”
“What about the memory card?”
“I removed it.”
“Where is it?”
Another pause.
“In my office.”
“You should have destroyed that too.”
“I will after this.”
My heart seemed to stop.
A recorder.
They had recorded something.
Perhaps my medical readings.
Perhaps forged instructions.
Perhaps their conversations.
Whatever it was, they believed it could hurt them.
Victoria asked, “And the empty vial?”
“I put it in the garbage bag with the broken recorder. The trash was collected from the mansion early this morning.”
She gave a nervous laugh.
“Then there’s nothing left.”
Harrison’s reply was cold.
“In a few minutes, there won’t be.”
Part Five: The Furnace
The crematorium employee returned.
“We’re ready, Mrs. Cole.”
Victoria began crying instantly.
“Please take care of him.”
“We will.”
The coffin moved again.
This time, the sound was different.
Not wheels over carpet.
Metal rollers.
A mechanical hum.
Heat pressed through the wood around me.
The furnace was close.
Too close.
I thought of all the things I had never said.
I thought of the employees who had trusted me.
I thought of my father teaching me to identify bourbon by scent.
I thought of Owen standing beside me at our mother’s grave, both of us promising that nothing would ever divide us.
Then I thought of the final conversation I had with him.
I had hung up while he was still speaking.
Regret hurt more than fear.
The machinery stopped.
A button beeped.
The furnace roared to life.
The sound filled the room like a storm.
Someone began reading a checklist.
Victoria sniffled behind me.
Harrison said nothing.
I gathered every bit of strength left inside me.
Move.
