Chapter 1 - Three Knocks
Exactly three knocks came from the side-room door.
The Harrington relatives were already smiling beside the Thanksgiving table, waiting for the photographer to capture another perfect year of old money, polished silver and inherited happiness.
Leah was the only person who turned toward the sound.
She opened the door.
Inside, eighty-six-year-old Eleanor Harrington sat on a padded chair, holding an old framed photograph against her chest. Her eyes were wet, but she remained upright and conscious.
“Mrs. Harrington?”
Leah knelt and offered her hand.
Victoria hurried across the dining room.
“She wandered in and couldn’t open the door.”
Eleanor shook her head.
Victoria spoke over her.
“She gets confused when the house is crowded.”
Leah kept the doorway open.
Then she noticed something caught inside the exterior latch.
A burgundy artificial nail tip.
She removed it carefully.
Victoria’s right hand disappeared behind her gown.
One fingernail was missing the identical burgundy tip.
Measured footsteps sounded from the foyer.
Ethan Harrington entered and stopped when he saw his mother inside the side room.
Leah helped Eleanor stand by the upper arms.
Eleanor looked directly at her son.
“She kept me here so I’d miss the family photo.”
Every relative fell silent.
Ethan guided his mother to the head chair.
Then he moved Victoria’s place card away from the table and placed the broken nail tip in front of her.
“Why did you hide the owner of this house?”
The waiting camera flashed once.
Victoria’s face turned pale.
May you like
Then Eleanor placed the old photograph on the table.
One person in it had been deliberately cut out.
