Chương 11
The assistant, Julia Wren, admitted Eleanor had instructed her to order the coffin and keep the purchase off the household calendar. Eleanor said a private memorial required discretion. Julia assumed someone in the extended family had died and did not ask who.
She had also arranged the crematory appointment.
Three days in advance.
Mercer changed his statement after learning about the order. He said Eleanor had called him that week to ask whether severe sedation could resemble cardiac death. He claimed he treated the question as hypothetical. On the morning of Rosalie’s poisoning, Eleanor told him Rosalie had overdosed intentionally and that public knowledge would destroy Theodore.
According to Mercer, Rosalie still had a faint pulse when he arrived.
He did not call emergency services.
He injected her with an additional sedative.
He signed the certificate after Eleanor promised Sebastian would protect him.
Sebastian had made no such promise.
Mercer was arrested while leaving his attorney’s office.
Halpern surrendered the following day. He admitted accepting cash to place Rosalie in the coffin without standard preparation and transport documentation. He said Eleanor told him the body had already been examined and that a religious objection prohibited further handling.
He had noticed warmth in Rosalie’s skin.
He had said nothing.
When Theodore heard that detail, he went into Naomi’s bathroom and punched the towel rack hard enough to tear it from the wall.
The rack clattered into the tub. One screw rolled beneath the sink.
He stood staring at the damage.
Naomi appeared in the doorway. “Are you injured?”
“No.”
“Did the towel rack attack first?”
“No.”
“Good. I dislike ambiguous liability.”
He crouched to retrieve the screw. “I’ll pay for it.”
“With what?”
“I have money.”
“You have theoretical inherited money being reviewed by forensic accountants.”
He sat on the edge of the tub. “He felt that she was warm.”
Naomi’s humor left her face. She leaned against the doorframe.
“He noticed,” Theodore said. “He noticed and closed the lid.”
“Yes.”
“I want to hurt him.”
“I know.”
“I could.”
“Probably.”
“He’s not large.”
“Neither is the part of your brain making this plan.”
Theodore looked at his swollen knuckles. “Rosalie says anger doesn’t choose what my hands do.”
“Rosalie says many annoyingly useful things.”
“I used to think that promise was about becoming like Dad.”
Naomi waited.
“Now I think it’s about becoming like everyone,” he said.
Sebastian came to repair the towel rack.
He arrived in an old navy sweater and carried a toolbox that appeared never to have been opened. Theodore watched him read the installation instructions twice.
“You could hire someone,” Theodore said.
“I was informed that would be missing the point.”
“By Naomi?”
“By Rosalie.”
Sebastian drilled the first hole too wide. Plaster dust fell onto his sleeve.
“You’re bad at this,” Theodore said.
“I have other competencies.”
“Covering crimes.”
Sebastian stopped drilling. “Yes.”
Theodore expected him to leave. Instead, his uncle examined the damaged hole and selected a larger wall anchor.
“Did you hear Rosalie in the coffin?” Theodore asked.
The drill remained silent.
“At the memorial,” Theodore continued. “Before I broke the glass.”
Sebastian set the tool down. “I heard something.”
Theodore’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“A faint sound. I believed it came from the hydraulic hinge settling.”
“When?”
“Before you said she was alive.”
“Why didn’t you check?”
“Because Dr. Mercer had declared her dead. Because I had seen death before. Because the alternative seemed impossible. Choose whichever answer disgusts you most.”
“You tried to stop me.”
“Yes.”
“You could have killed her by stopping me.”
“Yes.”
Theodore stepped closer. “Why haven’t you told the police?”
“I did.”
“When?”
“The first evening.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Sebastian looked at the wall. “Cowardice.”
Theodore laughed once, without humor. “You admit things so cleanly.”
“They are not clean.”
“You make them sound clean.”
Sebastian turned. “What would satisfy you? A raised voice? Tears? Shall I throw the drill?”
“No.”
“I heard my niece make a sound from inside a coffin and chose the explanation that required nothing from me. I have replayed that choice each night. It does not become more dramatic. It becomes smaller.”
Theodore looked at the silver watch on his uncle’s wrist.
“Why did you say, ‘Don’t make me choose’?” he asked.
Sebastian’s face changed.
“Rosalie heard you,” Theodore said. “In the guesthouse.”
Sebastian sat on the closed toilet lid. The room was too small for his shoulders.
“Eleanor called me shortly after four,” he said. “She said Rosalie had collapsed. When I arrived, Mercer told me she was dead. Eleanor was hysterical. She said Rosalie had discovered the foundation accounts and had taken pills after threatening to expose us.”
“You believed her.”
“For several minutes.”
“And then?”
“I saw the gray satin on a chair. It had been torn from the sash of Rosalie’s dress. I asked why. Eleanor said Rosalie had bitten her tongue during a seizure and she used the fabric to protect her.”
“You still believed her?”
“I did not know what to believe.”
“You could have called an ambulance.”
“Yes.”
“You could have checked Rosalie.”
“Yes.”
“What choice was Eleanor making you make?”
Sebastian’s hands closed around each other. “She told me that if I called emergency services, the police would find the financial records Rosalie had copied. She said the foundation would collapse, our father’s conduct would become public, and you would lose the only stable home you had left. She said Rosalie was already gone and there was nothing to save except the living.”
Theodore felt cold.
“And you said?”
“I said, ‘Don’t make me choose between you and what is right.’”
“What did she say?”
“That I had been choosing her for years.”
“Was she wrong?”
“No.”
Theodore leaned against the sink. “Then what did you do?”
“I told Mercer to call authorities.”
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“He didn’t.”
“He said there was no legal need because he was her physician and the death appeared natural. Eleanor said Rosalie had written cremation instructions. I went upstairs to tell you.”
