AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Figgy watched as Lina feinted left, then right, and then moved toward the grand staircase, taking two steps at a time. The Executive wasn’t far behind. Fern tried to snag the Executive’s arm and hold him back, but he shook her off, nearly sending her down the marble steps. Figgy cringed.
Lina reached the top of the staircase breathing heavily, still clutching the thin silver object in her hands. She grasped the wrought iron railing and it wobbled beneath her fingers.
I think she’s holding a laptop.
Yes! You’re right.
The Executive slowly stepped closer to Lina, and Fern, once again, tried to pull him away. He wheeled around and shoved her, sending Fern tumbling to the ground.
I don’t think this is part of the game.
No shit, Sherlock. Now’s the time to call the police.
Don’t you dare. I want to see what happens.
Seeing Ned push Fern to the floor seemed to incense Lina, and with her free hand, she struck out at the Executive, punching him in the jaw. His head reeled back but it didn’t slow him down. He reached for the laptop and Lina slapped his hand away.
Samuel stepped in and roughly pulled the Executive away from Lina. “Back off, man,” he said. His voice was muffled, making it difficult to understand him. Figgy strained to hear.
“Samuel, look,” Maire said, nodding over the railing. Samuel abruptly dropped the Executive’s arm. At the bottom of the steps, two cameramen appeared, along with a handful of others. They lifted the cameras to their shoulders and suddenly, the livestream zoomed in on the action and the audio became clearer.
“Let’s go back in the office and talk about this,” Maire urged. “Please.”
“Talking’s over,” the Executive said, creeping forward. Maire tried to step in front of him, but he elbowed her aside. “Get out of my way,” he snarled.
“Is this what you want?” Lina taunted. “Come and get it.” She leaned against the balustrade and dangled the laptop over the edge.
Figgy held her breath. What was on that laptop?
“Cat, watch out!” Fern cried.
Figgy held her breath as a section of railing dipped backward, then snapped from its base, opening up like a garden gate. Lina was going to fall, but she grabbed on to the Executive and after one precarious moment, it looked like they were both going to go over the edge. Somehow, they regained their balance and remained atop the landing, holding on to one another, the laptop wedged between them. Figgy released a breath, her heart thundering in her chest. Lina was okay. Everyone was okay.
The camera zeroed in on Lina’s face. Curiously, there was no relief, no fear in her expression. She was smiling, a soft, self-satisfied uptick of her mouth. Then, without warning, Lina stepped backward off the balcony, pulling the Executive along with her. Together, the two fell to the marble floor below.
FORTY-TWO
THE ASSISTANT
Fern ran down the steps and stood over Cat’s unmoving body, crumpled beneath Ned’s. They were both dead. The laptop was in pieces, scattered across the great hall. This couldn’t be real. Around her she heard screams. Someone yelled, “Cut the cameras,” while someone else shouted, “Keep rolling.”
Above Fern, Maire, Samuel, and Camille looked down from the balcony, standing close to one another, frozen in disbelief.
Cat had fallen from the balcony and had taken Ned down with her. Live on air. Had One Lucky Winner been an act of revenge from the very beginning? Cat knew each and every one of the contestants. Intimately. She knew their darkest secrets and was determined to reveal them to the world in the most public and damning ways. Why?
In the distance, there were sirens. Someone had called for help. Fern moved past Alfonso and the others to the front entrance. She typed in the code that would open the gates.
Soon, the villa was filled with paramedics, police officers, and detectives. Fern saw the contestants whisked away. She was taken to the library and sat in one of the leather chairs for what felt like hours. Finally, a man who identified himself as a homicide detective sat down next to Fern.
“Homicide?” Fern asked in alarm. “But they weren’t murdered. They fell.”
“Whenever there’s an unnatural death, we’re called in to check things out, but I don’t imagine our investigation will take all that long. It’s not often we get the entire event on video. We’ve already talked to the other witnesses, and I would like to hear what happened from you.”
Dazed, Fern explained how Ned Bennett and Cat fell from the balcony in a struggle over a laptop that held damning information about Ned. The video from One Lucky Winner would back that up.
Fern lied and said that while she had worked for Ned Bennett briefly ten years ago, she had no real interaction with him, that it was Cat who was a victim of his workplace abuse and wanted to bring him down.
“We’ve taken the laptop into evidence. What’s left of it anyway,” he said.
