Chapter 3 - What Eleanor Remembered
Rose called Eli from the taxi.
"I'm fine. I'm studying for a biology exam. Why do you keep asking where I am?"
"Because somebody sent me your picture. Lock your door and call campus security. Right now."
She forwarded the message to Detective Torres and went to Bellevue instead of going home. Nathaniel was waiting outside the examination room with his tie undone.
"She has a fractured wrist and bruised ribs," he said. "The doctors say she's lucky."
"I know."
He noticed her envelope. "Blake fired you?"
"He says I was running."
"You were running toward my mother."
"That's not the story your wife is telling."
Nathaniel looked through the glass into Eleanor's room. "I'm starting to understand that."
Eleanor asked for Rose before she asked for anyone else. She held the young woman's sore hand carefully.
"You could have let go."
"I couldn't."
"You should know I heard you. You told them the truth."
Rose hesitated. "Do you remember why Victoria was upset?"
The old woman watched her son approach the door.
"I told her I would never approve the sale of Harbor House. She said she'd already promised the land to someone. I told her she couldn't promise what wasn't hers."
Nathaniel stopped. "What sale?"
"Ask Miles," Eleanor said. "Ask your chief financial officer why he's been calling me every morning."
Nathaniel's expression tightened. Miles Harker had been his friend since graduate school. He'd stood beside him at the wedding.
Eleanor swallowed. "Victoria said that by tomorrow I'd be too late to stop her. Then she put her hands on me."
A nurse came in to check the monitors. When she left, Nathaniel drew the curtain and looked at Rose.
"Did you get a threatening message?"
May you like
Rose showed him the picture of Eli. Nathaniel went very still.
"That's the same campus," he said, "where Miles told me his nephew works in security."
