Chapter 3 - The Breakfast That Never Changed
The call lasted eleven seconds.
Arthur traced nothing.
The caller said nothing after laughing.
But Gideon no longer looked sick.
He looked furious.
That was the first sign to Norah that he might survive.
Over the next four days, Gideon regained strength while Arthur reconstructed the weeks before his illness.
The tonic order had appeared electronically.
The medication changes had followed.
Mercer had signed some adjustments but denied others before disappearing.
And Dominic Wolf, dead for two years, had somehow returned as a shadow in pharmacy footage.
Norah began remembering details everyone else had ignored.
The tonic was always waiting before she entered the kitchen.
On Tuesdays, Lucien came late because of deliveries.
Yet the drink was still prepared.
That meant Lucien wasn't always making it.
Arthur checked employee access.
One person entered the kitchen before Norah every morning.
Marta Vale, the estate’s senior housekeeper.
Marta had hired Norah.
She had defended her when a guest accused her of stealing an earring.
She had once slipped Norah two hundred dollars when Norah couldn't afford her mother's funeral expenses.
Norah refused to believe it.
Until Marta disappeared.
Her room had been emptied.
Her uniforms remained.
Everything personal was gone.
Inside the wastebasket, Norah found a torn photograph.
Gideon recognized the younger woman in it.
“Dominic's wife.”
Norah stared at him.
“Marta knew her?”
Gideon turned the photograph over.
Two words were written there.
Forgive me.
That night, someone entered Norah's room.
Nothing appeared stolen.
Then she saw her grandmother's old medication notebook lying open on the bed.
A red circle had been drawn around one sentence.
Ordinary things can become dangerous in the wrong combination.
Below it, someone had written:
So can people.
Norah ran for Gideon.
She reached his private floor.
His door stood open.
The room was empty.
Then she heard Gideon's voice from the dark office across the hall.
“Norah.”
She entered.
He was standing for the first time.
Unsteady.
Pale.
But standing.
And he was holding the torn half of Marta's photograph.
The missing half showed Dominic Wolf.
Alive.
The date printed beneath it was six months after his funeral.
Before Norah could speak, someone knocked once on the office door.
Then twice.
Arthur drew his gun.
Gideon looked toward the sound.
May you like
The handle slowly turned.
And Marta Vale stepped inside.
