Chapter 10 - The Woman in Blue
The police found Celeste before dawn at a private airstrip twenty miles away.
She did not resist.
She asked for a lawyer and refused every question until Brooks placed a still image from the pool video in front of her.
Celeste stared at herself pushing the stroller.
"That doesn't show what she threatened me with," she said.
Adrian leaned forward. "Who?"
Celeste laughed bitterly. "Your mother. Who else?"
She claimed Evelyn had recruited her through the foundation and promised money, access, and eventually marriage to Adrian. At first, the goal was influence.
Then Evelyn demanded more.
"She said Caleb had to survive the pool," Celeste whispered. "She said the point was to prove Adrian's household was unstable. Maya would be blamed. Adrian would panic. Then she could move in legally."
Maya asked, "And the brake line?"
Celeste's face changed.
"That wasn't me."
"Convenient," Adrian said.
"I swear."
Brooks watched her carefully. "Who did it?"
Celeste looked toward the observation glass.
"Evelyn stopped trusting the slow plan."
"Why?"
"Because Adrian changed his will last month."
Adrian frowned. "Nobody knew about that."
"She did."
The new will removed Evelyn from every position of control and named an independent trustee for Caleb.
The pool plan could no longer give Evelyn the company.
Only Adrian's death before the will was formally recorded could.
Adrian's stomach dropped.
"My attorney was filing it this morning."
He remembered Samuel warning him not to tell anyone about the change until the paperwork was stamped. Adrian had assumed the secrecy was routine. Now he understood why Samuel had insisted on meeting away from the estate, why he had carried the draft in a plain grocery bag, and why he had asked whether Adrian trusted his own staff.
At the time, Adrian had laughed.
He wasn't laughing now.
Brooks stood. "Name?"
"Samuel Dean."
She called immediately.
No answer.
Adrian tried again.
Nothing.
Then Maya's phone buzzed with a news alert.
May you like
A car had gone over a bridge downtown.
The registered owner was Samuel Dean.
