Chapter 1 - THE RED LIGHT IN ELLIE'S BAG
Mara Collins was locking the front register when a little girl ran through the Boston rain.
The child crossed the parking lot without a coat, dark braid stuck to her cheek and patent shoes splashing through water. She reached the convenience store entrance just before Mara turned the key.
Then she seized Mara's wrist with both hands.
“Please! Save my dad! He's going to die!”
The girl was crying so hard she could barely breathe. A tiny leather backpack was strapped tightly across her charcoal dress.
Mara dropped the keys.
“Where is he?”
The child pointed through the rain toward the hill beyond the store. Warm lights glowed behind the trees where the old Bell mansion stood above Chestnut Hill.
“Uncle Adrian won't let him call anyone.”
Mara told her coworker to call 911 and give them the address. Then she pulled on her rain-soaked coat and followed the girl into the storm.
Ellie dragged her through the mansion's open entrance. The marble foyer was lit by chandeliers, but the enormous house was unnaturally silent.
A weak groan came from behind the library doors.
Ellie's face collapsed.
“Daddy!”
She ran. Mara caught up as the doors opened.
Gabriel Bell sat restrained in a leather chair beside the fireplace. His face was pale. His head hung against one shoulder, and an IV line disappeared beneath the rolled sleeve of his shirt.
Adrian Bell stood over him in a black tuxedo.
He held a syringe inches from the IV port.
Two large guards waited near the library entrance.
Ellie screamed and tried to reach her father.
Mara pulled the child behind her.
“Get away from him!”
Adrian turned slowly. He showed no surprise that a stranger had entered his brother's home.
He raised the syringe again.
Gabriel struggled weakly against the restraints.
“By morning,” Adrian said, “everyone will believe his heart gave out.”
Mara stared at him.
“You're killing your own brother.”
Adrian's expression hardened. He crossed the dark wood floor toward them.
“This is none of your business.”
Ellie clutched Mara's coat.
A red light blinked inside the child's backpack.
Adrian stopped.
His eyes fixed on the bag.
“What's in there?”
Ellie's face went pale. She locked both hands around the backpack straps.
Adrian moved closer.
One side of the bag slipped open.
A smartphone glowed inside. Its red recording light was still blinking.
Adrian froze.
The confidence vanished from his face. His eyes widened as he stared at the phone, then slowly looked at Ellie in sudden fear.
The child pulled the backpack against her chest.
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Mara understood only one thing.
Adrian was more frightened of that phone than he was of being seen with the syringe.
