Chapter 8 - Blood and Bargains
By two o'clock that afternoon, Eleanor Vance’s world had completely fractured.
I was sitting in the corner booth of a discreet café across from the Suffolk County Courthouse, waiting for Julian to complete the sealed filing with the DA’s Homicide Division, when my personal cell phone rang.
It wasn't Eleanor. It was Violet.
I let it ring until the final second, then tapped the screen.
"Nora?" Violet's voice wasn't imperious anymore. It was shrill, breathy, and bordered on hysteria. "Nora, please don't hang up. Please."
I took a sip of black tea, letting the steam warm the aching burn on my jaw. "You have thirty seconds, Violet."
"Mom is losing her mind!" Violet sobbed, her voice dropping to a desperate whisper. "She’s pacing the motel room, throwing glasses against the wall. She called some man named Kenneth and was screaming at him, telling him he had to wire her fifty thousand dollars or she’d ruin him! She threw her phone at my head when I asked her what was going on!"
"That sounds like an Eleanor problem," I said coolly.
"Nora, please! I didn't throw the soup! That was all her! You know how she gets when she's angry!" Violet’s voice broke into high-pitched pleading. "I just wanted to borrow the car for the interview! I never asked her to hurt you! Look at me—I'm sitting in a filthy truck stop bathroom on Route 9, eating stale crackers out of a vending machine! I don't have my makeup, I don't have my portfolio, and the police said if I go near the house they’ll put me in a cage!"
"You stood behind her and smiled," I said, every word measured and cold. "When that boiling broth hit my skin, Violet, you crossed your arms and told me I was thirty-two, single, and invisible. You told me Eleanor was the only reason I wasn't alone."
"I was just trying to stay on her good side!" Violet cried. "You don't know what she’s like when we're alone! She controls everything! She took my trust fund money! She told me if I didn't back her up against you, she’d cut me out completely!"
"Violet," I interrupted. "Why are you calling me?"
The other end of the line went quiet for a moment, punctuated only by the distant flush of a commercial toilet.
"I have her laptop," Violet whispered.
My fingers tightened around my coffee cup. "Go on."
"When she went to the gas station next door to buy cigarettes, I took her personal MacBook and her backup drive out of her vanity case," Violet said, her voice trembling with calculated survival instinct. "She keeps all her offshore banking passwords in an encrypted file. I know the master key. She wrote it down in my old high school diary years ago."
"Are you selling out your own mother?" I asked, a bitter smile touching my lips.
"She’s going to drag me down with her!" Violet hissed, the tears vanishing instantly, replaced by the naked, parasitic selfishness that defined her entire character. "I saw the paperwork Julian gave the sheriff. She’s broke, Nora. She’s been living on credit cards and remortgaging assets she didn't even own! I'm not going to jail for her! If I give you the laptop and the passwords... will you drop the charges against me? Will you give me my trust fund back?"
"Meet me at the Starbucks on Commercial Street in forty-five minutes," I said. "Bring the laptop. Bring the drive. If you tell Eleanor, or if you bring anyone with you, the deal is off."
"I'll be there," she gasped. "I swear to God, Nora, I'll be there."
I ended the call and looked out the window. Across the street, Julian was stepping out of the granite portico of the courthouse, accompanied by a tall, gray-haired woman in a tailored navy suit whom I recognized immediately: Assistant District Attorney Sarah Vance-Lin, Arthur’s second cousin and the chief of the county's Special Investigations Unit.
Julian saw me through the café glass, nodded once, and held up a stamped, red-bound legal dossier.
The emergency petition had been granted.
I picked up my coat, stepped out into the biting wind, and met them on the sidewalk.
"It’s done," Julian said, his eyes gleaming with grim satisfaction. "The petition for emergency exhumation has been signed by Judge Thornton under sealed docket 24-098. Sarah has already assigned two detectives to locate Dr. Kenneth Hayes at his estate in Edgartown."
Sarah Vance-Lin looked at me, her eyes softening as she saw the white bandage on my neck. "Arthur was a good man, Nora. When Julian showed me the digitalis logs, I couldn't breathe. We’re moving fast. The forensic pathology unit will be at Mount Auburn at seven tomorrow morning."
"We need to move faster," I said quietly. "Violet just called me."
Julian’s eyebrows shot up. "What did she want?"
"She’s offering to hand over Eleanor’s personal laptop and encrypted offshore files," I replied. "In exchange for immunity."
Sarah let out a short, cynical laugh. "Rats fleeing a sinking ship. Where is she?"
"Starbucks on Commercial Street. Twenty minutes from now."
"Take a squad car and two undercover plainclothes," Sarah instructed Julian instantly. "Do not confront her. Let Nora take possession of the drive. The moment the chain of custody is established, we take Violet in for voluntary questioning. If she flips on Eleanor on the record, we won't even need to wait for the toxicology report to issue an arrest warrant."
May you like
I looked at Sarah, then down at the busy street where yellow cabs splashed through puddles. "Violet will flip. She doesn't love Eleanor. She loves comfort. And right now, she’s cold."
---
