Chapter 11 - Victoria’s Lie
Victoria denied trying to destroy the chamber.
“I went there because my father told me not to.”
Detective Foster stared.
“That seems to be a recurring pattern.”
“I did not start the fire.”
“Why were you in the basement?”
“I wanted to see where it happened.”
“Where what happened?”
Victoria stopped.
Foster leaned closer.
“You just told me you don’t know your father killed anyone.”
“I don’t.”
“Then what happened?”
Victoria looked toward Alexander.
He had insisted on hearing her explanation.
Elena sat beside him.
Victoria finally spoke.
“When I was fourteen, I heard my parents arguing.”
“What about?” Alexander asked.
“Celeste.”
His face changed.
“My mother said, ‘You can’t keep building rooms over graves.’”
Elena’s skin went cold.
“What did Sebastian say?”
“That she was hysterical.”
“Did you ask your mother?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because she drank.”
Victoria swallowed.
“She drank a lot.”
“So you dismissed her.”
“Yes.”
“Where is she now?”
“Dead. Seven years.”
“What did she die from?”
“Liver failure.”
The room quieted.
Victoria continued.
“When I found the brooch at seventeen, I remembered the argument.”
Alexander said, “And still said nothing.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was afraid my father had killed someone.”
The answer was ugly.
Honest.
Elena asked, “Why wear it now?”
Victoria looked at her.
“Because last month he changed his will.”
Maya frowned.
“What?”
“He told me if I didn’t stop criticizing his control of my foundation, he would leave everything to Marlowe Arts Holdings.”
Alexander stared.
“So you wore the brooch as a threat.”
Victoria nodded.
“I wanted him to know I still had leverage.”
The gala gown had not been merely fashion.
It had been warfare between father and daughter.
Maya said, “And when Elena recognized it—”
“I panicked.”
Foster asked, “What happened in the basement last night?”
Victoria looked down.
“My father called.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me police were going to destroy St. Aurelia over ‘a seamstress’s fantasy.’”
“What else?”
“He said if I cared about my future, I should make sure there was nothing for them to find.”
Alexander’s expression hardened.
“That’s solicitation.”
Victoria nodded.
“I know.”
“Did you intend to do it?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena stared.
Victoria looked at her.
“I went downstairs.”
“And?”
“I stood in front of the wall for ten minutes.”
Her voice broke.
“I had a crowbar.”
Nobody moved.
“I thought if I destroyed whatever was there, maybe my life could go back.”
Maya whispered, “Jesus.”
“But I couldn’t.”
“Who started the fire?” Foster asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Did anyone else enter?”
“Yes.”
Victoria looked toward Alexander.
“My father.”
Silence.
“He came through the service stairwell.”
“Did you see him?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
“He told me to leave.”
“And you did?”
“Yes.”
Foster immediately requested building access records.
Sebastian’s attorneys claimed he had been home.
But his driver’s GPS placed the car two blocks from St. Aurelia.
The old man had finally made a direct mistake.
The next morning, police opened East Lift Two.
Reporters crowded outside.
Elena, Alexander, and Victoria were not permitted in the basement.
They waited upstairs.
Two hours passed.
Then three.
Alexander paced.
Victoria sat motionless.
Elena stitched a loose button on her coat simply because her hands needed work.
At 12:41 p.m., Detective Foster entered.
Nobody spoke.
Her face told them enough.
Alexander stopped moving.
“What did you find?”
Foster looked at him.
“A sealed cavity behind the lower lift wall.”
Alexander’s mouth went dry.
“And?”
“Human remains.”
Victoria covered her face.
Elena closed her eyes.
Alexander did not.
“Can you identify them?”
“Not yet.”
“What else?”
“A woman’s evening shoe.”
Elena began crying.
Foster continued.
“Fragments of red velvet.”
Alexander’s knees almost buckled.
“And a gold signet ring.”
He whispered, “My mother wore one.”
Foster nodded.
“The initials are C.R.”
Alexander sat.
Thirty years of uncertainty ended without relief.
Celeste had not run away.
She had not abandoned him.
She had been inside the opera house the entire time.
Behind a wall his family helped finance.
Victoria whispered, “My father…”
Foster turned toward her.
“We are obtaining warrants for Sebastian Marlowe’s residence and offices.”
Victoria stared at the floor.
Then Elena noticed something.
Foster looked troubled.
“What?”
“There was another item in the cavity.”
“What?”
“A man’s cuff link.”
Alexander lifted his eyes.
Foster placed an evidence photograph on the table.
A platinum cuff link.
Engraved with two letters.
May you like
R.R.
Richard Reed.
