Chapter 3 - The Room Vanessa Wouldn’t Open
Daniel ordered the dressing-room lock replaced.
Vanessa objected immediately.
“Rachel wanted that room left alone.”
“You've spent eleven months telling me Rachel never said anything unusual before she died.”
“I was trying to help you move on.”
“No. You were deciding what I was allowed to know.”
The locksmith opened door.
Rachel’s perfume still faintly lingered inside.
Her dresses remained covered.
Jewelry drawers were empty because Daniel had packed valuables months earlier.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
Except vanity.
There was a circular dust mark where red perfume bottle once stood.
Beside it:
three tiny scratches.
Daniel placed recovered shard against old photograph of bottle.
Perfect match.
Rachel had been holding that bottle on night she died.
Why?
Vanessa finally admitted something.
She and Rachel argued upstairs.
About Daniel.
Not romantically.
About money.
Rachel had discovered irregularities in William Carter’s estate.
Vanessa believed Rachel was accusing her mother, Eleanor, of stealing from family.
Rachel wanted Daniel told immediately.
Vanessa begged her to wait.
Their voices rose.
Noah may have heard Rachel scream Vanessa’s name during argument.
“Did you push her?”
“No.”
“Did you touch her?”
“No.”
“Did you see her fall?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Daniel saw answer before she spoke.
“Yes.”
Rachel left dressing room carrying red perfume bottle.
Vanessa followed.
Rachel stopped near top stair.
She said:
“If you won't tell Daniel, I will.”
Then lights went out.
Only for several seconds.
Vanessa heard glass break.
Rachel screamed.
When emergency lights flickered on, Rachel was falling.
Vanessa insisted she never touched her.
“Why didn't you tell police?”
“Because I knew how it sounded.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“That sentence seems to follow every secret in this house.”
Investigators inspected old electrical records.
There had been an outage.
9:39 p.m.
Duration:
eleven seconds.
So Vanessa had not invented darkness.
But someone manually tripped circuit from basement.
Not storm.
Not utility failure.
Someone intentionally darkened house.
Who else was there?
Vanessa.
Rachel.
Children.
And housekeeper, Margaret Shaw.
Margaret had resigned the morning after Rachel died.
Daniel had assumed grief.
Police located her in Maryland.
When Daniel called, Margaret immediately asked:
“Did you find rabbit?”
Daniel’s blood ran cold.
“How do you know about it?”
“Rachel showed me.”
“What’s inside?”
Margaret went silent.
“Her hair?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“She said hair was only there to make sure wrong person stopped searching.”
Daniel looked at rabbit on evidence table.
“What am I supposed to find?”
May you like
Margaret answered:
“The key.”
