Chapter 6 - Shadows in the Rafters
Chloe scrambled backward, her hands scraping against the rough pine floorboards of the attic. The steel box overturned beside her, the flash drive clattering across the floor and vanishing beneath the low curve of Eleanor's antique easel.
""Stay away from me!"" Chloe gasped, holding the toxicology report crushed against her chest like a paper shield. ""I know what you did! You poisoned her! You spent months putting chemicals in her food!""
Susan didn't lunge. Instead, she took slow, measured steps across the attic floor, the heavy iron tool hanging casually from her right hand. The mocking sneer she had worn in the foyer was completely gone, replaced by a cold, vacant detachment that was infinitely more terrifying.
""I didn't poison anyone, Chloe,"" Susan said softly, her voice barely louder than the autumn wind whistling through the roof vents. ""Do you honestly think I had the scientific knowledge or the access to obtain banned industrial compounds? I was an assistant. A glorified secretary managing social calendars and museum donations.""
""Then why do you have this?"" Chloe shouted, gesturing wildly at the opened box. ""Why did you leave the note for me to find?""
""Because Arthur thinks he's smarter than everyone in this valley,"" Susan replied, stopping five paces away. She leaned on the tire iron as if it were an expensive walking cane. ""Arthur needed a villain. When Eleanor started noticing the symptoms—the numbness in her hands, the hair loss, the vomiting—Arthur needed someone close, someone he could blame if the police ever started asking questions. So he brought me closer. He bought my loyalty with jewelry, promises of luxury, and eventually, a wedding ring.""
""You're lying!"" Chloe's voice trembled, but a sickening knot of doubt was already tightening in her stomach. Her father had always made Eleanor’s morning coffee. He had always prepared her evening herbal teas, insisting it was his personal ritual to help her sleep.
""Look at the dates on that report, Chloe,"" Susan said, her eyes glinting in the pale moonlight. ""That test was taken three weeks before Eleanor died. She finally realized what was in her tea. She packed that box, hid it in the floorboards of the guest room, and was driving that night to the state police barracks with that very evidence on the passenger seat.""
""And Arthur stopped her,"" Chloe whispered, the horrific realization hitting her like a physical blow.
""Arthur intercepted her car at the lake turnoff,"" Susan corrected coldly. ""I was in the passenger seat of his sedan. I saw him run her off the guardrail. And now, Arthur knows you're up here. He knows the letter Eleanor wrote you is out of his hands.""
Suddenly, the heavy attic door downstairs slammed shut with a concussive bang. Heavy, urgent footsteps began pounding up the wooden stairs, moving fast.
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""Chloe!"" Arthur's voice boomed from the stairwell, fraught with raw desperation. ""Chloe, don't listen to her! Step away from Susan right now!""
Susan’s face snapped toward the stairwell, her composure shattering for the first time. She grabbed Chloe’s arm with bruising force, hauling her to her feet. ""Give me the flash drive, Chloe. Give it to me right now, or neither of us is walking out of this attic alive.""
