Chapter 1 - The white object on the slate
Warm afternoon sunlight poured through the glass walls of the Cole family’s Newport estate conservatory, catching on tropical leaves and polished cocktail tables before spreading across the dark slate floor.
The private reception had been running for nearly an hour.
Formally dressed relatives moved between the greenery with champagne in hand. A server crossed the room carrying a silver tray loaded with crystal flutes.
Eight-year-old Ava Cole stood beside one of the cocktail tables in an ivory party dress.
She looked nervous.
Then something changed in her expression.
Ava suddenly swung her arm across the passing tray.
Several champagne glasses flipped violently.
Crystal struck slate.
Champagne splashed across the floor.
Ava immediately clamped both hands over her ears, frightened by the crash.
Guests turned.
Charles Cole, her sixty-seven-year-old grandfather, did not ask whether she was all right.
He looked at her with disgust.
“YOU RUIN EVERYTHING—JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER DID.”
Ava’s face crumpled.
Then Mason Cole pushed through the stunned guests.
He crossed the room in seconds and stepped directly between Charles and his daughter.
“DON’T YOU EVER TALK TO MY DAUGHTER LIKE THAT.”
Charles leaned toward him.
He looked completely unapologetic.
“THEN CONTROL YOUR USELESS LITTLE BRAT.”
Mason slapped him.
One hard open-palm strike.
Charles’s head jerked sideways.
The room went silent.
Mason’s anger was still written across his face when he noticed something near Charles’s shoes.
He stopped.
His expression changed.
Not calmer.
Sharper.
Suspicious.
He pointed toward the floor.
“THEN EXPLAIN THAT.”
The nearest guests followed his finger.
Champagne spread between shards of broken crystal.
And lying in the middle of the wet slate was a small white capsule-shaped object.
No visible markings.
No label.
Nothing that told anyone what it was.
One male guest dropped to one knee nearby, careful not to touch it.
Charles looked down.
The confidence disappeared from his face.
Mason stared at him.
Then said the sentence that changed the entire reception.
“THAT WAS IN MY WIFE’S ROOM THE NIGHT SHE DIED.”
Charles froze.
One hand remained against his slapped cheek.
His eyes widened.
Ava stood behind Mason, trembling.
May you like
And for the first time in two years, Mason wondered whether the explanation everyone had accepted for his wife’s death had been wrong.
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