Chapter 12 - The Woman on the Roof
Cold wind tore across the hotel roof.
A glass greenhouse stood near the edge, filled with decorative palms used for private receptions.
Clara entered slowly.
Eleanor sat in a chair near the glass wall.
Her wrists were tied.
Gabriel stood behind her with a pistol.
“You came,” he said.
Clara held up the memory card.
“Let her go.”
Eleanor looked at Clara with disbelief.
“Why would you risk yourself for me?”
“I am not doing this for you.”
Gabriel laughed.
“Honesty.”
“No wonder Evelyn liked you.”
Clara stepped closer.
“Arthur brought the evidence.”
“He brought a copy.”
Gabriel extended his hand.
“Give it to me.”
“You release Eleanor first.”
“You are in no position to negotiate.”
Clara glanced at the edge of the roof.
A temporary stage platform had been constructed beside the greenhouse.
Below it, the ballroom windows glowed.
“You wanted a public confession.”
“I wanted survival.”
“You killed Evelyn.”
Gabriel’s smile vanished.
“Victor touched the car.”
“You cut the brake line.”
“Eleanor told you that?”
“She did not need to.”
Clara watched his eyes.
“You hated Evelyn because she discovered you were stealing.”
“No.”
“I hated her because she believed goodness was a weapon.”
“She thought if she exposed us, people would choose justice over money.”
“She was naïve.”
“She was brave.”
“She was dead.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Clara forced herself not to react.
She needed him talking.
Behind the roof door, Arthur and Ruiz worked to override the lock.
Gabriel held out his hand again.
“The card.”
Clara moved closer.
“Eleanor framed me because she thought I had Evelyn’s envelope.”
Gabriel smiled.
“She did.”
“But the envelope was already gone.”
“You took it.”
“No.”
Gabriel glanced at Eleanor.
“Your beloved matriarch did.”
Eleanor’s face changed.
Arthur could hear the conversation through the hidden microphone in Clara’s dress.
He looked at Ruiz.
“My mother had the envelope?”
Clara continued.
“What was inside?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Eleanor never told you?”
“She opened it.”
“Then she burned the paper.”
“But she kept the photographs.”
Eleanor spoke suddenly.
“Be quiet.”
Gabriel tightened his grip on the pistol.
“You do not command me anymore.”
Clara looked at Eleanor.
“What photographs?”
Eleanor said nothing.
Gabriel answered.
“Pictures of Richard Vance meeting federal investigators.”
“Arthur’s father was preparing to turn over evidence.”
“Eleanor stopped him.”
“How?”
Gabriel leaned closer to Eleanor.
“Tell her.”
Eleanor’s eyes filled with hatred.
“You know nothing.”
“I know you replaced Richard’s heart medication.”
Clara’s breath caught.
“You killed your husband.”
Eleanor looked toward the city.
“I delayed his treatment.”
“He would have survived.”
Gabriel laughed.
“You left him on the library floor for forty minutes.”
Eleanor’s face collapsed.
For the first time, she looked less like a cold matriarch and more like a frightened old woman trapped inside the consequences of her own decisions.
“I thought I could make him reconsider,” she whispered.
“He died before the ambulance came.”
Clara heard the roof lock click behind her.
She needed a few more seconds.
“Evelyn found the photographs.”
“Yes,” Gabriel said.
“She placed copies inside the necklace.”
“Then you killed her.”
“She would have destroyed everything.”
Eleanor turned toward him.
“You told me Victor would only frighten her.”
“I told you what you wanted to hear.”
Gabriel looked at Clara.
“The card.”
Clara extended her hand.
He stepped closer.
The roof door burst open.
Detective Ruiz entered with her weapon raised.
“Drop the gun!”
Gabriel seized Clara and pulled her against his chest.
The pistol pressed beneath her chin.
Arthur stopped several feet away.
“Let her go.”
Gabriel smiled.
“You have terrible taste in loyal women.”
“Your wife died for you.”
“Your maid may do the same.”
Clara’s eyes remained on Arthur.
She slowly opened her hand.
The memory card fell.
Gabriel looked down instinctively.
Clara drove her heel into his foot and twisted away.
Arthur lunged.
Gabriel fired.
The bullet shattered the greenhouse glass.
Eleanor screamed as the wall collapsed.
Gabriel struck Arthur with the pistol and ran toward the roof edge.
Ruiz pursued him.
Clara freed Eleanor’s wrists.
“Can you walk?”
Eleanor stared at her.
“You saved me.”
“Stand up.”
Arthur tackled Gabriel near the temporary platform.
They crashed against the railing.
Gabriel punched him repeatedly.
Arthur refused to release him.
The railing broke.
Both men fell over the edge.
Clara screamed.
Arthur caught a steel cable beneath the platform.
Gabriel hung from Arthur’s ankle.
Thirty-three floors below, the city traffic moved like distant streams of light.
Gabriel looked up.
“Pull me up.”
Arthur struggled to hold the cable.
“You killed my wife.”
“If I fall, you become like me.”
Arthur’s face twisted with pain.
Gabriel’s grip began to slip.
Clara crawled toward the edge.
She reached for Arthur.
Ruiz grabbed Arthur’s other arm.
Together, they pulled him upward.
Gabriel seized the platform support.
Officers reached him from the lower maintenance level and dragged him to safety.
He was handcuffed on the roof.
Eleanor watched as police led him away.
Then she turned toward Arthur.
“I need to tell you everything.”
Arthur looked at his mother.
“Yes.”
“You do.”
May you like
“But not as my mother.”
“As a suspect.”
