Chapter 10 - THE SECOND FRAME
Detective Brooks stared at the necklace.
“This changes things.”
Mariana almost laughed.
“It changes nothing.”
“It was found in your safe.”
“Again.”
Andrew said, “Someone is framing her.”
Brooks looked at him.
“You sound certain now.”
“I should have been more careful before.”
Mariana looked at him.
Not forgiveness.
But progress.
Brenda examined the safe without touching it.
“How did they open it?”
Mariana thought.
The code was six digits.
Changed six months earlier.
A date.
Not their anniversary.
Her father’s birthday.
Who knew that?
Andrew.
Margaret.
Possibly Brenda.
Sophia, if she had seen Mariana enter it while fitting dresses in the room.
Mariana checked hidden-camera footage.
At 1:31 a.m., the feed went black.
Someone had remotely disabled it.
“That means they know about the camera now,” Andrew said.
Brenda shook her head.
“They knew before.”
Mariana looked at her.
“The first footage was allowed to survive.”
Exactly.
Brenda entering the room had been useful.
It created a suspect.
Then Brenda said, “Someone wanted me exposed too.”
Mariana stared.
“You searched my room voluntarily.”
“Yes.”
“But whoever framed me knew you would.”
Brenda nodded.
“Which means they knew I suspected you.”
Andrew asked, “Who did you tell?”
Brenda hesitated.
“My father.”
Charles Sterling.
Seventy-one.
Retired financier.
Andrew’s godfather.
Mariana felt cold.
Brenda immediately saw where their minds went.
“No.”
“You told him.”
“Yes.”
“He knew about the old fund.”
“Yes.”
“He knew Thomas.”
“Yes.”
Brenda’s voice sharpened.
“My father is not Julian.”
Mariana replied, “That isn’t what I said.”
“It’s what you’re thinking.”
“Good. Then prove me wrong.”
Brenda called Charles.
No answer.
His driver had not seen him since yesterday afternoon.
They went to the Sterling townhouse.
The study was empty.
A fire burned in the fireplace.
Too hot.
Mariana saw papers curling in the flames.
Andrew used a poker to pull them out.
Most were destroyed.
One survived enough to read.
EASTBRIDGE MANAGEMENT.
Brenda went pale.
Then they heard movement upstairs.
Andrew ran.
Mariana followed.
They found Charles Sterling sitting on the bedroom floor.
Blood on his forehead.
Alive.
He looked at Brenda.
“Julian.”
She crouched.
“What did he do?”
Charles shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
“I mean Julian didn’t start this.”
Mariana stepped closer.
“Who did?”
Charles looked at Margaret.
She had just entered behind them.
May you like
His face filled with fear.
“Her.”
