Chapter 10 - THE IMPOSSIBLE CONFESSION
Lauren recoiled from the phone.
“That’s a lie.”
Michael immediately said:
“No.”
“My father poisoned himself?”
“No. That’s not what I said.”
“Then explain it!”
Michael struggled to breathe.
“Thomas gave me the bottle two days earlier.”
No one moved.
“He told me that on Tuesday morning a man would come into the diner wearing a gray coat and carrying a black leather folder.”
Richard frowned.
“Thomas?”
“Yes.”
“He wanted you to put something in that man’s coffee?”
“Yes.”
“Who was the target?”
Michael hesitated.
“David Mercer.”
Every eye turned toward David.
He looked stunned.
“I wasn’t at the diner that morning.”
“I know,” Michael said.
“Then what happened?”
“Thomas arrived wearing a gray coat.”
I suddenly remembered it.
His favorite winter coat.
Gray wool.
Michael continued.
“He carried a black leather folder.”
Lauren shook her head.
“No.”
“I thought he was David. I had never met either man.”
David’s face drained.
Samuel whispered:
“Thomas set a trap.”
Michael began sobbing.
“I put three drops into his coffee.”
“What was in the bottle?” Ethan asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You never asked?”
“Thomas said it would cause nausea and dizziness. Enough to keep David from attending a meeting.”
Lauren looked horrified.
“My father planned to drug someone?”
David stared at the floor.
“He was desperate.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
“No.”
I agreed with her.
Thomas had been a good man.
But good people can make terrible decisions when afraid.
Michael continued.
“When Thomas came to the counter afterward, he looked at me and asked whether I had seen David.”
My heart broke imagining the moment he understood.
“He knew,” I whispered.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he get help?”
“He asked how much I used. I said three drops. He told me the amount wasn’t dangerous.”
David looked up.
“Then something else killed him.”
Lauren stared at the phone.
“What was actually in that bottle?”
Michael’s voice became quiet.
“That’s why I ran.”
“Why?”
“The next morning, someone broke into my apartment.”
“Who?”
“I never saw them.”
“What did they want?”
“The bottle.”
“Did they get it?”
Michael paused.
“No.”
Richard stepped closer to the phone.
“You still have it?”
“For twenty years.”
“Where?”
Michael did not answer immediately.
Then he said something none of us expected.
“Margaret already has it.”
I stared at the speaker.
“What?”
“Thomas hid it somewhere only you would keep forever.”
I shook my head.
“I don’t understand.”
Michael said:
“The night before everything happened, Thomas told me if things went wrong, the truth would stay with his daughter.”
Lauren slowly looked down at the small velvet box I was still carrying.
My mother’s pearl locket.
The wedding gift I had brought to the church.
Her fingers trembled.
“Mom…”
I opened the box.
The antique locket rested inside.
Lauren picked it up.
She pressed the tiny clasp.
May you like
The back plate shifted.
And hidden behind my mother’s wedding photograph was a paper-thin glass vial.
