Chapter 2 - Blue Lights on Gravel
The blue strobes did not flash, but the two unmarked sedans parked across the gravel driveway were unmistakable. Through the sheer linen curtains, Arthur saw two detectives in long overcoats stepping out, neither in any particular hurry. That deliberate slowness chilled him faster than sirens ever could.
Julianna stood up slowly, smoothing the burgundy fabric of her skirt, though her hands were visibly trembling. “Arthur, what is this? What did you do?”
“Nothing,” he said automatically, a lie honed over seven years of practice. “Julianna, stay calm. She’s unhinged. She vanished on her own. I had nothing to do with her disappearance.”
Clara gave a faint, chilling smile. “You had everything to do with the car, Arthur. And the cut brake line you didn’t realize I noticed before I ever reached the coast road.”
The front door chimed. A firm, rhythmic double strike of the brass knocker.
Arthur spun around. “Clara, please. Think about Lily. If you do this—”
“I thought about Lily every night while I worked night shifts under an assumed name in Leeds, waiting until she was old enough to remember my voice when I came back,” Clara said, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. “You told her I abandoned her because I didn’t love her. That is what you told our nine-year-old child.”
Julianna looked at Arthur, horror dawning across her features. “You told me Lily’s mother killed herself because of postpartum depression. You showed me the letters.”
“He wrote them,” Clara said simply.
The door swung inward. Mrs. Gable, the housekeeper whose loyalty Arthur had bought with generous annual bonuses, stood pale in the entranceway, flanked by Detective Inspector Vance. Vance took off his flat cap, his gaze sweeping from the trembling bride-to-be to Arthur’s blanched face, finally settling on Clara.
“Mrs. Vance,” Clara acknowledged quietly.
“Good morning, Clara,” the inspector replied, stepping into the room. He turned to Arthur. “Arthur Pendelton. I have an arrest warrant regarding the 2019 inquiry into Clara Pendelton’s presumed death, along with charges of grand larceny against SunLife Underwriting.”
Arthur took a step backward toward the French doors leading to the garden. “This is a misunderstanding. She abandoned us! She staged it!”
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Vance produced a pair of steel cuffs from his belt. “We found the mechanic, Arthur. The one who worked out of the salvage yard in Grimsby. He kept the bank transfers.”
Arthur’s heel struck the glass door behind him.
