Chapter 2
Evan Cole did not deny the voice was his.
That frightened Ryan more than a denial would have.
For nearly a minute, his best friend stood beside the fireplace without speaking while Detective Lena Ortiz replayed the video from Oliver’s toy car. The ballroom had been cleared except for family, essential staff, and the officers processing the scene. Rain struck the tall windows in restless bursts. Somewhere in the kitchen, a refrigerator alarm beeped until somebody finally silenced it.
On the laptop screen, the same hands appeared again.
A strip of clear tape.
A glass vial.
Evan’s voice saying, “I had nowhere else to hide it.”
Then the woman in silver heels: “You weren’t supposed to bring it in here.”
Ortiz paused the recording.
She was in her early forties, with dark hair twisted into a knot and the patient expression of someone accustomed to waiting for liars to become uncomfortable.
“That’s you?” she asked.
Evan looked at Ryan before answering.
“Yes.”
Abigail made a sound of disbelief.
Ryan barely heard it.
Evan had been his roommate in college. His business partner for four years. The man who drove six hours through a snowstorm when Caroline went into premature labor with Oliver. The man Ryan had asked to stand beside him at his wedding because there was nobody else he trusted more.
Now police had video of him hiding a mysterious vial beneath the cake table.
“Why?” Ryan asked.
Evan rubbed both hands over his face.
“It isn’t what you think.”
“People only say that when it is exactly what I think.”
“I didn’t poison anything.”
Ortiz leaned against the table. “Then start with what you did do.”
Evan looked at the video.
“Megan gave me the vial.”
Elaine Reed stared at him. “My assistant?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Maybe forty minutes before the ceremony.”
“Where?” Ortiz asked.
“Service hallway.”
“And what did she tell you?”
Evan hesitated.
Ryan felt anger rise again.
“Tell her.”
Evan’s eyes hardened. “She told me she found it in Victor’s catering case.”
Victor, who was seated across the room with an officer beside him, shot to his feet.
“That’s a lie.”
The officer pushed him back into the chair.
Victor pointed at Evan. “I never had that thing.”
Evan ignored him.
“Megan was scared. She said she saw Victor moving something between bottles near the prep station. When he left, she checked his case and found the vial.”
Ortiz asked, “Why didn’t she call police?”
“She said she didn’t know what it was.”
“So you decided to tape it under a cake table?”
“I panicked.”
Ryan stared at him.
“You panicked?”
Evan turned. “The wedding was about to start. There were two hundred people here. Megan was afraid Victor would realize she had taken it. I told her I’d get it out of the ballroom and deal with it later.”
“By hiding it ten feet from the champagne?”
“I didn’t think about that.”
Ryan almost laughed.
“That’s your explanation?”
“It’s the truth.”
Detective Ortiz resumed the video.
The woman’s silver heels shifted closer.
Evan’s recorded voice said, “Go back upstairs. Act normal.”
The woman whispered, “What if he notices it’s gone?”
“Then let him notice after the ceremony.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
The woman did not answer.
The video ended when Oliver’s toy car rolled backward into darkness, apparently after he moved the controller from somewhere else in the ballroom.
Ortiz looked at Evan.
“Who was the woman?”
“Megan.”
“Can anyone confirm those are her shoes?”
Elaine nodded reluctantly. “She wore silver heels.”
“So did at least ten women here,” Abigail said.
Her voice was quieter now.
Ryan turned toward her.
Abigail sat on the edge of a banquet chair, a white robe draped over her wedding dress. Someone had removed the train so police could work around the floor. Her hair, which had been perfectly pinned only hours earlier, was beginning to fall around her face.
She looked exhausted.
Ortiz asked, “Where is Megan now?”
Nobody answered.
The detective looked at Elaine.
“You employ her.”
“I haven’t seen her since just before the ceremony.”
“You didn’t find that unusual?”
“It was a wedding. People were moving everywhere.”
Abigail looked at her mother. “She was supposed to bring my second pair of shoes after the pictures.”
“And did she?” Ortiz asked.
“No.”
The detective turned to one of the officers.
“Search the property. Every room staff had access to. Check her car if it’s here.”
The officer left.
Victor leaned forward.
“Ask him why he was meeting her in secret.”
Everyone looked at Evan.
Ryan’s stomach tightened.
Evan stared at Victor.
“What are you talking about?”
“You think kitchen staff don’t notice anything?” Victor said. “You two have been sneaking around this place since Thursday.”
Elaine looked genuinely shocked for the first time that evening.
“Megan and you?”
Evan said nothing.
Ryan understood before Evan admitted it.
“You’re seeing her.”
Evan’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Four months.”
Elaine snapped, “She never said a word.”
Evan gave her a bitter look. “Considering the way you treat employees, can you blame her?”
Abigail looked between them. “Why hide it from us?”
“Because she works for your mother and I work with Ryan. We didn’t want this weekend turning into gossip.”
Ryan stared at the man he had known for fifteen years.
“Apparently secrets were the dress code.”
Evan flinched.
Detective Ortiz did not.
“Mr. Lane,” she said to Victor, “why did you try to leave when the vial appeared?”
Victor’s expression changed.
“I told the officer.”
“Tell me.”
He looked at the evidence table.
“I recognized the bottle.”
Ryan stepped closer.
“From where?”
Victor glanced at Grant.
Grant frowned.
“Why are you looking at me?”
Victor wet his lips.
“Three days ago, a box was delivered to the kitchen by mistake. It was addressed to Mr. Mercer.”
Ryan said, “Me?”
“No.” Victor looked at Grant again. “Mr. Grant Mercer.”
Grant’s expression went flat.
“What box?”
“A medical courier package.”
“I receive prescriptions.”
Victor nodded quickly. “I figured that’s what it was. I didn’t open it. But one corner had torn during delivery, and there were small glass vials inside. Same black caps. Same size.”
Grant gave a short laugh.
“You saw part of a bottle through torn cardboard and now you’re certain it’s identical?”
“No.”
“Then stop implying otherwise.”
Victor turned to Ortiz. “That’s why I tried to leave.”
The detective looked almost amused. “Because a vial reminded you of someone else’s package?”
Victor’s face flushed.
“No. Because I knew how it would look.”
“How what would look?”
He hesitated.
Ryan said, “Victor.”
The caterer closed his eyes.
“Mr. Grant asked me yesterday if there was a way to mark one champagne glass without making it obvious to guests.”
The room became silent.
Grant stared at him.
“That is a lie.”
Victor continued before fear could stop him.
“He said Ryan had an allergy and needed a different champagne.”
Abigail stood.
“Ryan doesn’t have a champagne allergy.”
“I know that now.”
Ryan looked at his uncle.
Grant shook his head slowly.
“This man is trying to save himself.”
Victor pointed toward the tray. “I told him we could use a ribbon. A small one around the stem.”
Ryan looked toward the sealed evidence bag containing the gold-ribbon glass.
His pulse thudded in his throat.
Grant spread his hands. “Anyone could have heard that conversation.”
“You said it never happened,” Ryan replied.
“It didn’t.”
“Then why would anyone hear it?”
Grant realized the mistake.
For the first time all evening, the polished confidence cracked.
Only for a second.
But Ryan saw it.
Detective Ortiz did too.
She wrote something in her notebook.
Grant’s voice became colder. “I want an attorney.”
“That’s your right.”
“I’m finished answering questions.”
“Also your right.”
Ortiz closed the notebook. “But you’re not leaving until officers have your information and confirm whether we have grounds to hold you.”
Grant sat down.
He didn’t look at Ryan again.
Oliver had been listening from beside his mother.
Most of the adults seemed to have forgotten he was there.
He tugged Caroline’s sleeve.
“Mom.”
“Not now, sweetheart.”
“I saw the ribbon.”
She looked down. “What?”
“The gold one.”
Ryan heard him.
“Oliver?”
The boy looked nervous again.
“I saw somebody tying it.”
Every adult turned.
Ortiz crouched in front of him.
“Do you remember who?”
Oliver frowned hard, trying to reconstruct a day that had become much larger than he understood.
“I saw hands.”
“Man’s hands or woman’s hands?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s okay. Where were you?”
“Behind the curtain near the music people. I was hiding because Mom said I had to stop driving my car.”
Caroline sighed.
Ortiz almost smiled.
“What did you see?”
“Somebody put the ribbon on the glass.”
“Anything else?”
Oliver nodded slowly.
“They had a ring.”
Abigail looked at her own left hand instinctively.
“What kind?” Ortiz asked.
“A big black one.”
Grant’s hand moved.
Ryan’s eyes followed it.
On Grant’s right ring finger was a heavy onyx signet ring stamped with the Mercer family crest.
He had worn it for as long as Ryan could remember.
Grant saw everyone looking.
“This is insane.”
Oliver stared at the ring.
“I think it was like that.”
“You think?” Grant snapped.
Oliver shrank backward.
Ryan stepped between them.
“Do not raise your voice at him.”
Grant stood.
“A frightened child sees a ring for half a second and suddenly I’m a murderer?”
“Nobody said murderer,” Ortiz said.
Grant went still.
Again, the wrong word had entered the room too early.
Just as “poison” had with Victor.
Detective Ortiz’s phone rang.
She answered, listened, and walked several steps away.
Ryan watched her face become serious.
When she returned, she did not look at Grant.
She looked at Ryan.
“The lab team ran a preliminary screen on residue from the marked champagne glass.”
Abigail took Ryan’s hand.
He barely felt it.
Ortiz continued.
“They found a substance that should not be in champagne. We don’t have a final identification yet, so I’m not going to speculate beyond that.”
Ryan swallowed.
“But?”
“But the emergency toxicologist believes ingestion could have caused a severe cardiac event.”
Nora made a small sound.
Ryan turned toward her.
She had gone completely pale.
“Nora?”
She sat down suddenly.
Ryan crossed the room.
“What is it?”
The housekeeper looked at Grant, then back at Ryan.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Your father.”
Ryan felt something inside him drop.
“What about my father?”
Nora shook her head as if she wished she could pull the words back.
“He died during dinner in this house.”
“I know.”
“They said it was his heart.”
“Nora.”
She reached for his hand.
“Ryan, the night your father died, there was a champagne glass beside his plate.”
Grant stood perfectly still by the fireplace.
May you like
Nora’s voice broke.
“And it had a gold ribbon tied around the stem.”
