Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW THE WATCH
Mason stared at his mother.
“Did you give Claire that necklace?”
Evelyn did not answer immediately.
Her eyes remained fixed on the small piece of paper.
Finally, she said, “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted her to understand what she was marrying into.”
Mason's voice hardened.
“You could have told me.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Several times.”
“Then why don't I remember?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Because your father made sure you wouldn't.”
Silence filled the room.
Daniel stood near the window.
Claire remained beside the bed.
Mason reached for the photograph.
“What happened twenty years ago?”
Evelyn looked toward Daniel.
“Tell him.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You should.”
“I have spent twenty years carrying it.”
“So have I.”
Mason looked between them.
“Someone start talking.”
Evelyn finally sat.
“Your father believed someone inside the family was stealing from the company.”
“Who?”
“We never proved it.”
“What does that have to do with tonight?”
“Everything.”
Evelyn's voice dropped.
“Your father discovered that someone had been moving money through shipping accounts. He confronted the person he believed responsible.”
“Who?”
“Daniel's father.”
Mason looked at Daniel.
Daniel's face remained expressionless.
“My father denied it,” he said.
“And your father disappeared two days later,” Mason said.
Daniel nodded.
“We were told he ran.”
“I never believed that,” Mason said.
“You were sixteen.”
“I knew my father.”
Evelyn looked down.
“No, Mason. You knew the man he allowed you to know.”
That sentence struck harder than Mason expected.
Before he could respond, a nurse entered.
“Mr. Vale, the police are requesting access to the dining room footage.”
Mason frowned.
“Police?”
Evelyn stood.
“No.”
The nurse hesitated.
“They say there was an attempted murder.”
Mason's expression hardened.
“Tell them my attorney will contact them.”
The nurse left.
Claire stepped closer.
“Mason, perhaps you should cooperate.”
He looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because if you refuse, it looks suspicious.”
Daniel's eyes moved toward Claire.
She noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“No. Say it.”
Daniel's voice was quiet.
“You're worried about appearances.”
“Of course I am.”
“Most people worried about appearances don't usually carry poison antidote tablets in their handbag.”
The room went silent.
Claire's face drained of color.
Mason slowly turned.
“What did he just say?”
Claire opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Daniel reached into the pocket of her discarded coat.
He removed a small silver case.
Mason stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
Claire whispered, “I didn't.”
Daniel opened the case.
Inside were two tablets.
Evelyn recognized the label.
“That's the emergency antidote for arsenic exposure.”
Claire stepped backward.
“I swear I didn't put those there.”
Mason's eyes narrowed.
“Then who did?”
No one answered.
Suddenly, Lily appeared at the open doorway.
Hannah was behind her.
“I know.”
Everyone turned.
Lily looked at the silver case.
“The old man had one.”
Daniel crouched.
“Are you sure?”
“He dropped it.”
“Where?”
“In the kitchen.”
Hannah grabbed her daughter's hand.
“Lily, don't go near him.”
But Lily pointed toward the hallway.
“He dropped it beside the coat closet.”
Daniel's expression changed.
He rushed out.
Mason forced himself upright.
“Follow him.”
Evelyn stopped him.
“You're still weak.”
“I don't care.”
Within minutes, security searched the coat closet.
They found nothing.
Daniel returned holding a black wool coat.
It belonged to Claire.
She stared at it.
“That isn't mine.”
Mason looked at the label.
It was hers.
Claire shook her head.
“I've never seen that coat before.”
Daniel searched the pockets.
A folded restaurant receipt fell out.
Then a child's drawing.
Lily's drawing.
Hannah stepped forward.
“That belongs to my daughter.”
Lily looked at it.
“I lost it yesterday.”
The drawing showed a large house.
A little girl.
A tall man.
And a woman wearing a necklace.
Claire stared at the picture.
“That's me.”
Lily nodded.
“You were outside the kitchen.”
Claire's voice trembled.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“I wasn't.”
“You were.”
Mason looked at Claire.
“Why were you watching my kitchen?”
“I wasn't.”
Daniel unfolded the receipt.
His face became grim.
It was from a private restaurant across town.
The date was three months earlier.
The name at the top was not Claire's.
It was Daniel's.
Mason looked at him.
“You met someone there.”
Daniel folded the receipt.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Daniel hesitated.
Then said,
“Your father.”
Mason went completely still.
“That is impossible.”
Daniel looked at him.
“I know.”
“Because he's dead.”
Daniel's eyes dropped to the old photograph.
“I never said he was alive.”
Mason stared.
“Then what are you saying?”
Daniel reached into his jacket.
He removed a small envelope.
“I found this in your father's office the night he disappeared.”
Mason took it.
Inside was a photograph.
A young Mason stood beside his father.
But behind them, barely visible through a warehouse window, stood the same silver-haired man Lily had described.
On his wrist was the old Vale watch.
Mason turned the photograph over.
There was a handwritten date.
And beneath it were four words.
THE WRONG MAN WAS BLAMED.
Mason looked up.
“Daniel.”
“Yes?”
“Who was the wrong man?”
Daniel's answer came quietly.
“Your father.”
May you like
Then every light in the hospital corridor suddenly went out.
And somewhere in the darkness, a woman screamed.
