Chapter 7 - THE EMPTY CHAIR
Mason returned to the estate before dawn.
No one slept.
The dining room remained exactly as it had been.
Broken glass still glittered beneath the chandelier.
The musicians' abandoned instruments stood in their places.
The chair where Mason had collapsed remained pulled away from the table.
Lily stood beside it.
She looked small in the enormous room.
Mason approached her.
“Are you afraid?”
She thought about it.
“A little.”
“Me too.”
Lily looked surprised.
“You get scared?”
“Sometimes.”
“Grandma says brave people don't get scared.”
Mason glanced toward Evelyn.
“She was wrong.”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow.
“I heard that.”
For the first time since the poisoning, Lily smiled.
Mason noticed the doll.
“May I see it?”
Lily handed it to him.
He examined the stitched pocket.
“Your mother made this?”
“Yes.”
“It's beautiful.”
“She made it when I was little.”
“You're seven.”
“I was littler.”
Mason smiled.
Then Lily pointed toward the dining table.
“That chair was empty.”
“What chair?”
She pointed to the far end.
“There.”
Mason looked.
He remembered sixty guests.
Fifty-nine chairs occupied.
One empty chair.
“Who was supposed to sit there?”
Lily shrugged.
“I don't know.”
Evelyn walked toward the chair.
Her face changed.
“That was your father's seat.”
Mason looked at her.
“What?”
“Your father always sat there.”
“Then why was it empty?”
Evelyn didn't answer.
Daniel entered.
“Because the person who reserved it canceled two hours before dinner.”
“Who?”
Daniel looked at the seating chart.
“Richard Whitmore.”
Claire's father.
Mason stared.
“Why would a dead man have a reserved seat?”
Claire stepped into the room.
“Because the invitation wasn't for him.”
Everyone turned.
Claire held an envelope.
“It was for me.”
Mason looked at her.
“You knew?”
“No.”
She handed him the envelope.
Inside was a handwritten invitation.
But the signature wasn't hers.
It was Richard's.
Claire, you must attend. The truth begins at the Vale table.
Mason looked at Daniel.
“This was planned.”
Daniel nodded.
“Someone expected Claire to be here.”
Claire whispered,
“My father knew he was going to die.”
Evelyn corrected her.
“Perhaps.”
Claire looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
“Richard died six years ago.”
“Yes.”
“But this letter was written recently.”
Claire stared.
“That isn't possible.”
Daniel examined the paper.
“The ink is recent.”
Mason's expression hardened.
“Someone is using your father's name.”
Claire sat down.
“I don't understand.”
Mason looked toward the empty chair.
“Neither do I.”
Lily suddenly approached the chair.
She placed her cloth doll on it.
“Don't sit there.”
Mason looked at her.
“Why?”
“The old man said nobody sits there.”
“Which old man?”
“The one with the white hair.”
Victor.
Mason's eyes narrowed.
“When did he say that?”
“Yesterday.”
“Where?”
“In the kitchen.”
Mason turned toward Hannah.
Hannah shook her head.
“She was with me.”
“No.”
Lily looked confused.
“I wasn't.”
Everyone stared.
“Where were you?”
“I went to get water.”
“When?”
“Before dinner.”
Mason looked at Daniel.
“That was when the poison was placed.”
Daniel nodded.
Lily had been in the kitchen.
She had seen the man.
And perhaps he had deliberately allowed her to see him.
Mason crouched.
“Lily, did he want you to tell me?”
She nodded.
“He said you needed to know.”
“What?”
Lily reached into the doll's pocket.
She pulled out a second object.
A small brass button.
Mason recognized it.
It came from the old red wool coat.
Hannah took it.
“My mother had these.”
Victor had said Margaret died because she discovered who ordered the poisoning.
But perhaps she had left something else behind.
Daniel examined the button.
“There is writing on it.”
Mason took it.
Three tiny letters were engraved inside.
R.W.
Claire's face went pale.
“Richard Whitmore.”
Mason stared at the button.
Then Claire whispered,
“My father wasn't the one who ordered it.”
Everyone looked at her.
“He was investigating it.”
She reached into her handbag.
“I found this in his belongings after he died.”
It was a small cassette tape.
Daniel stared.
“You still have it?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell us?”
“Because I was afraid.”
Mason looked at her.
“What does it contain?”
“I don't know.”
They found an old player in the study.
The tape hissed.
Then a man's voice filled the room.
Richard Whitmore.
“If you're hearing this, I failed.”
Claire covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
“I was wrong to trust Victor.”
Victor's name caused everyone to stiffen.
“I was also wrong to trust Evelyn.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Mason looked at his mother.
Richard continued.
“The person who ordered the first poisoning was not Victor.”
The tape crackled.
“It was someone closer.”
Then the recording stopped.
Claire stared at the machine.
“That's it?”
Daniel pressed play again.
Nothing.
Mason looked at the tape.
“Someone cut the rest.”
Evelyn whispered,
“Then the missing section is the key.”
Lily stood near the window.
She was staring outside.
“Mister Mason?”
“Yes?”
“There is a man in the garden.”
Everyone turned.
A figure stood beneath the old oak tree.
Mason's security team rushed outside.
The man disappeared.
But something remained hanging from the tree.
A black coat.
Mason walked toward it.
Inside the pocket was a silver pocket watch.
He opened it.
A photograph was hidden beneath the clock face.
Mason stared.
It showed him as a child.
Beside him stood his father.
And behind them was Lily's mother, Margaret.
On the back were six words.
I protected you from her once.
Mason looked at Hannah.
She was crying.
Then Daniel whispered,
“There's another photograph.”
He turned it over.
The second image showed Margaret holding a baby.
The baby was Mason.
And standing beside her was Evelyn.
Mason's face went pale.
“Why was my mother with Margaret?”
Evelyn finally broke down.
“Because Margaret wasn't working for your father.”
May you like
She looked at Mason.
“She was working for me.”
