Chapter 17 - Celeste's Last Bargain.
Detective Ortiz read the note twice.
“No.”
Maya had not said anything.
“You are not meeting her alone.”
Jonathan looked at the service tunnel.
“She wants Evelyn's flash drive.”
“Obviously,” Ortiz said.
“Which means she needs something on it destroyed badly enough to expose herself.”
Maya looked at the camera.
“She expects me to follow.”
Ortiz folded the note into an evidence sleeve.
“And you are not going to.”
A phone rang in the underground room.
Everyone turned.
The sound came from a shelf behind old document boxes.
An inexpensive prepaid phone vibrated against the wood.
Ortiz answered on speaker.
Celeste spoke immediately.
“Maya.”
“She is here,” Ortiz said.
Celeste gave a quiet sigh.
“Of course she is.”
“Where are you?”
“I want the flash drive.”
“You can discuss that after you surrender.”
“No.”
Celeste's voice remained calm.
“Maya brings it to the greenhouse in five minutes.”
“Otherwise?” Ortiz asked.
A pause.
“Otherwise Jonathan never learns what happened the night Evelyn died.”
Jonathan stepped toward the phone.
“What did happen?”
Celeste laughed softly.
“You are still asking other people to tell you what happened in your own family.”
The line went dead.
Jonathan looked at Ortiz.
“Give her the drive.”
“No.”
“There are copies.”
“That isn't the point.”
Maya understood the detective.
Celeste wanted control of the meeting.
She had spent years controlling rooms, documents, conversations, and frightened people.
This was simply another room.
Maya looked at the tunnel map officers had discovered on the wall.
The storm shelter passage connected to the greenhouse through an old coal access door.
There were two other exits.
Ortiz began quietly positioning officers around all three.
Maya was given a duplicate flash drive containing harmless files.
“You walk to the greenhouse door,” Ortiz said.
“You do not enter unless I tell you.”
Jonathan objected.
Maya ignored him.
The greenhouse stood at the edge of the winter garden.
Morning rain tapped softly against the glass roof.
Inside, rows of orchids and citrus trees created pockets of shadow.
Maya approached the door with the fake drive clenched in her fist.
“Celeste?”
No answer.
She stepped just inside.
The door closed behind her.
Maya turned.
Celeste stood near the far wall wearing a dark coat over the blue evening gown.
Her hair was damp.
Her face looked exhausted for the first time.
A thin scratch crossed one cheek, and one side of the expensive gown was streaked with mud from the garden tunnels.
Yet she still stood as though Maya were the intruder.
That composure was almost more disturbing than panic would have been.
“You came.”
Maya kept her breathing slow.
“You knew I would.”
“I knew you would tell yourself this was about protecting Noah.”
“It is.”
Celeste gave a tired smile.
“No. It is about proving you were the one person in this house who noticed what everyone richer than you ignored.”
Maya felt the insult but refused to chase it.
Celeste wanted anger.
Angry people stopped listening.
“Police are outside.”
“I assumed they would be.”
Celeste held out her hand.
“The drive.”
Maya did not move.
“What happened to Evelyn?”
Celeste's eyes hardened.
“She died.”
“Did you give her anything?”
“No.”
“Did you stop Ruth from staying?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn had spent months poisoning Jonathan against me.”
Maya almost laughed.
“She was right about you.”
Celeste's expression sharpened.
“Evelyn was right about many things.”
Then she said something Maya did not expect.
“She was also right about Jonathan.”
Maya heard movement outside the greenhouse.
Celeste heard it too.
“Give me the drive.”
“No.”
Celeste reached into her coat.
Maya tensed.
But Celeste pulled out the small brass key Noah had described.
She held it between two fingers.
“You think this opens a room.”
“It doesn't.”
“What does it open?”
Celeste smiled without warmth.
May you like
“The part of Evelyn's plan none of you have found yet.”
Then the greenhouse lights went out.
