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What was happening? Who was that woman who came to her office asking questions? She threw her belongings on the sofa and sat down on the floor to hug her cats. Then she pulled the burner phone from her bag and dialed Izzie’s number.
“Zoe. Are you okay?” Izzie asked.
“I’m not sure. Why do you ask?”
“Mason Chapman. What do you know about him?” Izzie had to get straight to the point.
“Honestly, not a whole lot. He went to school in Oxford. Worked for the royal family’s estates since. Why?” Zoe was beginning to sense something was afoot.
“I don’t know any easy way to say this . . .”
Zoe’s skin began to crawl. “Say what?” She tried to keep her breathing normal.
“That woman who’s been shadowing you? She’s related to Mason Chapman. It’s his niece.”
Zoe thought she was going to puke. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I just said. Charles confirmed it. Her name is Louise Phillips.”
Zoe squinted, thinking hard. Where had she heard that name before? “Louise Phillips. What is she doing here?”
“She works for a private investigator.” Izzie paused. “Zoe, I am sure there is a reasonable explanation for this. Don’t get all worked up. At least not until we can find some answers. Okay?”
“I’ll try.” Tears began to run down Zoe’s face. She wiped at them and then looked at her hands. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried.
Chapter Ten
Wednesday
England
Mason Chapman limped over to the gurney with the help of an emergency responder. “I’m quite alright,” Mason protested as the ER tried to talk him into getting in the ambulance.
“You really should have a doc take a look at ya,” the ER cautioned. “You could have broken somethin’.”
Mason tried to put pressure on his right leg, but the pain shot up to his hip. “Right.” He sat on the ledge of the NHS ambulance. “Just give me a minute, eh?”
He felt his cell phone vibrate in his pants pocket. It was his niece, Louise. He rolled his eyes and ignored the text message. He looked at the ER and agreed to be taken to the hospital. They took down his information on a medical clipboard and placed it at the foot of the gurney.
“Yer lucky you didn’t break yer neck.” The ER looked at the crumpled platform. “Or worse!”
Mason Chapman looked at the mangled pile of pipe and wood. He had been standing at the edge of the building when the scaffold collapsed directly in front of him. As he ducked, he’d twisted his leg and a piece of the wooden platform fell on top of it. All he could think about were the questions he would be asked by the safety inspector. Questions for which he had no answers.
The ER helped him inside the ambulance, closed the doors and got into the passenger side of the cab. Mason lay back on the stretcher while another ER took his blood pressure.
“A bit high, sir, but considering what you’ve been through, it’s not too bad,” she said.
Mason stared out the small windows as the tops of buildings passed by. He was stunned, but not in shock. Stunned because something like this should not have happened. Thankfully no one was standing on the scaffold when it collapsed. So how did it happen? He shut his eyes, trying to imagine the scenario. Were the bolts not properly tightened? It didn’t occur to him that the accident was not an oversight, but something deliberate. His phone vibrated again. Louise. What on earth could she possibly want? Whatever it was, it was going to have to wait.
About twenty minutes later the ambulance pulled into the emergency entrance of the hospital. They wheeled him into the large triage center, where a half dozen other patients were waiting for medical attention. One man had a knife stuck in his arm, wrapped in makeshift bandages soaked in blood. Another was a woman about to give birth. Mason knew he would be waiting a long time before he was tended to. Another hour had passed before a nurse came by to take his temperature. He was unsettled, but still maintained a polite façade and cool demeanor.
“I’m not feeling ill,” he said to the nurse.
“Then why are you in hospital?” the sourpuss nurse asked.
He pointed to his leg. “I may have broken it.”
She again checked the clipboard that held his information. “Oh, sorry, sir. I thought you were someone else. The doctor should be with you shortly.”
