Chapter 4 - Grief for Sale
Julian tore the flower from his lapel and stared at the hidden lens.
He insisted he knew nothing about the transmission.
His attorney took the device and announced that Anna had probably attached it before the funeral.
The accusation was impossible, but several guests still believed it because blaming a household employee required less courage than questioning an heir.
A television screen in the chapel lobby suddenly activated.
Anna’s face appeared beneath a red LIVE symbol.
More than eighty thousand viewers were watching an edited broadcast titled MAID DESTROYS BILLIONAIRE’S CASKET.
The feed showed Anna’s strike and Julian’s confrontation, but it removed her warning about the casket’s weight and cut away before the empty interior was revealed.
Comments called her violent, jealous and ungrateful.
Someone posted the address of her apartment.
Her employer sent a message terminating her for conduct that damaged the Whitmore name.
Anna had been unemployed for less than twenty minutes, yet the family’s media allies had already made her unemployable across Boston.
Julian ordered the broadcast stopped.
The feed changed instead.
It showed Henry entering the chapel alive at two in the morning, accompanied by a tall woman wearing Mrs. Whitmore’s black veil.
They placed the luggage tag and photograph inside the casket together.
The woman’s face remained hidden.
Mrs. Whitmore claimed Henry must have been delirious.
Anna asked why a supposedly dead man had been preparing his own empty funeral.
Henry’s recording answered.
He said the service was a trap intended to expose whoever had ordered Lorraine’s disappearance.
He had arranged for one honest family member to receive instructions after Anna opened the casket.
Julian checked his pocket and found a sealed black envelope he had never seen before.
Inside was a key and a note in Henry’s handwriting.
JULIAN, YOUR MOTHER WILL LIE FIRST.
Mrs. Whitmore stood and demanded that her son burn the note.
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Before Julian could respond, police entered the chapel carrying an arrest warrant for Anna.
The warrant had been signed six hours before she broke the casket.
