Chapter 2 - THE PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT MY MOTHER'S GRAVE
"Who sent you this?"
My voice barely sounded like mine.
Vincent Calder watched my hands tremble above the photograph.
"That's what I've been trying to discover."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't know whether you were the target or part of the threat."
The words hurt more than I expected.
For three years, I'd worked in his kitchen.
I knew he preferred coffee without sugar.
I knew he hated artificial vanilla.
I knew the exact temperature he wanted his chocolate soufflé served.
But to him, I was still someone who might be dangerous.
"I didn't poison your dinner," I whispered.
"I know."
I looked up sharply.
"How?"
"Because if you'd wanted me dead, you wouldn't have risked your life stopping the meal."
He slid the photograph toward me.
"Who was your mother?"
"Margaret Brooks."
"What did she do?"
"She was a pharmacist before she became ill."
Vincent leaned forward.
"Where?"
"St. Catherine's Medical Center."
His expression changed.
It lasted only a second.
But I saw it.
"Why?"
He remained silent.
I thought about the black falcon.
The photograph in Mom's Bible.
The way Nathan had reacted when I mentioned the service hallway.
Then I remembered something else.
My mother had worked at St. Catherine's until an unexplained incident ended her career.
A medication scandal.
Three deaths.
And an accusation that she had falsified pharmaceutical records.
She'd denied everything.
Nobody believed her.
We lost our home.
She lost her professional license.
And eventually, after years of shame and illness, she died.
I'd spent most of my adult life believing she had been unfairly blamed.
But I'd never been able to prove it.
"Do you know St. Catherine's?" I asked.
Vincent looked toward the window.
"My younger brother died there."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
"Eleven years ago."
A memory surfaced.
The scandal.
The newspaper headlines.
A young Calder heir dead after receiving medication at the hospital.
I covered my mouth.
"Your brother was Daniel Calder?"
Vincent nodded.
The room tilted.
My mother had been blamed for the medication error that killed Daniel Calder.
And now I worked for his older brother.
I stepped backward.
"You knew who I was when you hired me."
Vincent's silence answered before he spoke.
"Yes."
Anger rushed through me.
"Why?"
"Because your application listed your mother's name. I recognized it."
"You hired me because you thought my mother killed your brother?"
"No."
"Then why?"
Vincent looked at the photograph again.
"Because I found evidence that she tried to save him."
I stared.
For eleven years, I'd believed my mother had gone to her grave without anyone knowing the truth.
Vincent opened another folder.
Inside was a hospital incident report bearing my mother's signature.
Across the top, in red ink, were the words:
UNAUTHORIZED MEDICATION SUBSTITUTION.
Vincent pointed toward the final page.
"Your mother identified someone who entered the medication room before Daniel received the wrong treatment."
My heart hammered.
"Who?"
May you like
He slowly turned the page.
The name written beneath the incident report was Nathan Calder.
