Chapter 3 - Hannah's Call
Vincent locked the study door.
Mia sat on the couch holding the teddy bear.
“When did you last see the blue bird?”
“Last week. Miss Hannah let me go into Mommy’s room.”
Hannah Brooks, Mia’s former nanny.
Celeste had fired her three months earlier while Vincent was overseas.
“What happened?”
“Celeste got mad. She said Mommy’s things were for grown-ups.”
Vincent opened the door.
“Where is Grace’s glass bird?”
Celeste folded her arms. “I have no idea.”
“You boxed up Grace’s things.”
“Because this home cannot stay a mausoleum.”
“That wasn’t your decision.”
Vincent ordered Patrick to find Hannah.
The answer came fast and wrong.
Her number was disconnected. Her apartment was empty. She had left the city two days after being fired.
Celeste gave a thin smile. “Maybe now you understand why I let her go.”
Vincent’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A woman whispered, “Mr. Hale?”
“Hannah?”
“Don’t say my name.”
Vincent walked onto the terrace.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you yet.”
“Why?”
“Because Celeste wasn’t the person I was most afraid of.”
His grip tightened.
Hannah said, “I found her in Grace’s room, tearing apart the jewelry cabinet. She was looking for the blue bird.”
“Did she find it?”
“No. Mia had already hidden it.”
Vincent looked through the glass at Celeste.
“Why did you disappear?”
“Because a man came to my apartment. He asked whether Grace had left me anything.”
“Who?”
Hannah sent a photograph.
Vincent opened it.
His chief financial officer, Grant Keller.
Best man at his wedding.
A man who had stood beside him at Grace’s funeral.
“That’s him,” Hannah whispered.
May you like
Then she added, “Mr. Hale, I think he helped kill your wife.”
The call ended.
