Chapter 2 - Why Ava knocked over the tray
Mason did not touch the white object.
Neither did the guest kneeling beside it.
That turned out to matter.
The guest was Dr. Eric Lawson, an emergency physician and longtime family friend. He looked at Mason and said quietly, “Nobody moves anything.”
Mason nodded.
Then he turned toward Ava.
Her hands were still pressed against her ears.
He crouched in front of her.
“Sweetheart, look at me.”
Ava lowered one hand.
“Did you mean to knock the glasses over?”
She nodded.
“Why?”
Her eyes moved toward Charles.
Then toward the spilled champagne.
“I saw Grandpa put it there.”
Mason felt his stomach tighten.
“Put what where?”
“In the glass.”
The conservatory seemed to disappear around him.
“What glass?”
“The one the man was carrying.”
Mason forced himself not to look at Charles.
“When?”
“Before the party.”
Ava spoke in short, frightened pieces.
She had gone into the service corridor looking for the bathroom. The door to the conservatory pantry had been partly open. She saw Charles beside the champagne station with his back turned.
He had something white in his fingers.
Then he dropped it into one of the flutes.
Ava did not know what it was.
She only knew she had seen something almost identical before.
Two years earlier.
In her mother’s bedroom.
The memory had never made sense until now.
“Mama had one on the floor,” Ava whispered.
Mason stared at her.
“When?”
“The night she got sick.”
He could barely breathe.
Ava had been six when Caroline died.
The official explanation had been sudden cardiac arrhythmia complicated by medication interactions.
She had suffered from migraines and insomnia. There had been prescription bottles on the nightstand. A toxicology screen showed therapeutic levels of several medications and one sedating compound the medical examiner believed could have contributed to the fatal rhythm disturbance.
No one had suspected foul play.
Caroline had been alone in the bedroom when she collapsed.
Charles claimed he found her.
Now Ava was saying she had seen the same kind of white capsule-shaped object on the floor that night.
And Charles had just been seen placing one into a champagne glass.
Mason stood slowly.
Charles finally spoke.
“She’s confused.”
Mason turned.
His voice was flat.
“Maybe.”
Charles looked relieved for half a second.
Then Mason continued.
“So we’ll let the police decide.”
May you like
The relief vanished.
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