Chapter 12 - THE WOMAN IN THE RED DRESS|
For one terrible second, I couldn't breathe.
The gunshot echoed across the loading yard.
Glass rained from a light fixture above the entrance.
Daniel stumbled backward.
And I heard Margaret scream from somewhere behind me.
"Daniel!"
Luca lunged toward the injured man.
The officers watching the exchange moved immediately.
Someone shouted for Vanessa to drop the weapon.
Victor tried to retreat toward the loading door.
But he was stopped before reaching it.
The two men guarding Daniel were quickly separated from him.
I watched Vanessa standing beneath the broken light.
Her pistol lay on the wet pavement.
Her face had gone completely white.
She looked nothing like the woman who had laughed at Margaret during Christmas dinner.
For the first time, she seemed to understand that money could not make everyone obey her.
"Nobody was supposed to get hurt," she whispered.
Luca stared at her.
"Nobody?"
He pointed toward Daniel.
"That man lost twenty years with his wife."
Then he looked toward Victor.
"An innocent man was murdered and buried under another man's name."
His voice broke.
"My father nearly died in my library."
Vanessa began crying.
"I did what my father told me."
Victor shouted from beside the police vehicle.
"Vanessa, don't say another word!"
She turned toward him.
"You told me everything would be fine."
Victor said nothing.
"You told me Frank would never discover the truth."
Luca stepped away from her.
"Did you know what was in his tea?"
Vanessa covered her mouth.
"Answer me," Luca said.
She looked down.
"Father gave me something to help Frank sleep."
I felt sick.
"He said Frank was exhausted and needed to stop asking questions."
Luca stared at her.
"And you put it in his drink?"
Her silence answered him.
"Did you know it could kill him?"
Vanessa began sobbing.
"I didn't ask."
That confession seemed to destroy the last piece of hope in Luca's eyes.
He had been betrayed by the woman who promised to love him.
And her excuse was that she had chosen not to learn the consequences.
Investigator Morales approached and instructed Vanessa to remain silent while the officers dealt with her.
There would be formal interviews, evidence, and legal proceedings.
But nothing could undo what had happened.
I ran toward Daniel.
He was sitting on the ground beside the loading dock.
An officer had removed the restraints from his wrists.
His shoulder was bruised, and he was struggling to catch his breath.
But he was conscious.
"Daniel?"
He looked at me.
"Claire."
I knelt beside him.
"Are you hurt?"
"Mostly my pride."
He attempted a smile.
Then his expression changed.
"Margaret?"
I turned.
She was coming toward us.
Nora walked beside her, trying to keep up.
Margaret stopped several feet away.
For twenty years, she had dreamed of seeing her husband again.
But when the moment finally arrived, she couldn't move.
Daniel slowly stood with assistance.
He looked at the small, trembling woman before him.
"Hello, Maggie."
The sound that escaped her throat broke my heart.
Nobody had called her Maggie since her husband disappeared.
She lifted one hand.
Then lowered it.
"Daniel?"
He nodded.
"It's me."
Margaret stared at his face.
The wrinkles.
The white hair.
The familiar eyes.
She touched the scar on his wrist.
"You still have it."
Daniel laughed through his tears.
"Frank's river wasn't very forgiving."
She began sobbing.
"Where were you?"
His smile vanished.
"I'm sorry."
"Where were you for twenty years?"
He reached toward her.
"I thought you were dead."
Margaret shook her head.
"I buried you."
"I know."
"You let me bury you."
Daniel began crying.
"I would have come home, Maggie."
His voice broke.
"I would have crawled across the country if I'd known you were alive."
Margaret stared at him for another moment.
Then she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist.
Daniel held her as though the world might try to steal her again.
They cried together beneath the broken loading light.
And for the first time in twenty years, Margaret Sullivan was holding her husband instead of his photograph.
I turned away to give them privacy.
That's when I noticed Luca standing beside the shattered plate.
He bent down and carefully gathered the broken pieces.
I approached.
"You don't have to do that."
He shook his head.
"Yes, I do."
He lifted a fragment decorated with a tiny blue flower.
"She carried this into my house because my father made a promise."
He looked toward Margaret.
"And my wife tried to turn that promise into a weapon."
I knelt beside him.
"We can repair it."
Luca examined the pieces.
"Not perfectly."
"No," I whispered.
"But being broken doesn't mean something has lost its value."
He looked at me for a long moment.
Then Daniel called from behind us.
"Claire."
I turned.
He was still holding Margaret's hand.
"Victor thought the plate contained the evidence."
I nodded.
"Where is it really?"
Daniel looked at Luca.
"Twenty-seven years ago, after I pulled your father from the river, he did something he regretted."
Luca frowned.
"What?"
"He treated me like a man who should accept a reward and disappear."
Daniel looked toward St. Agnes.
"A few days later, he came to the community kitchen and apologized."
His voice softened.
"He promised there would always be a place for me at his table."
Luca stared at him.
Daniel continued.
"Years later, when I discovered Victor's crimes, I hid the records beneath the one gift Frank gave that wasn't money."
"What gift?" I asked.
Daniel smiled sadly.
"A wooden Christmas star."
May you like
He glanced at the dark windows of St. Agnes.
"And that star is still inside the building."
