Chapter 20: Played in Full

"Hands on an Ashgrove, without my say," I said, in the corridor, while Roxie's voice came through the speakers.

"I know."

"That was the rule."

"I broke it," Keir said. "Write me up."

"I will. In bed. Tonight."

He looked at me, and the corner of his mouth moved.

"Is that a threat?"

"It's a schedule."

I took his phone out of his hand, because the recording was on it, and walked back down the corridor.

The great hall had gone quiet around Roxie's voice.

She stood at the microphone in her green velvet dress, reading from a card.

"I was raised in Bridgeport by two good people," she said. "And I want everyone to know that I love them."

Her hands were shaking so hard the card rattled.

"But Lena was brought up here, with every advantage, and she has always been cold."

"She was cruel to our mother," Roxie read.

"She hated her, and she wanted her gone."

Adelaide stood at her shoulder, nodding.

Roxie looked up from the card, and she saw me coming down the aisle.

Her face changed.

She stopped talking in the middle of a word.

I climbed the steps and stood beside her, and I put out my hand.

"Roxie," I said, so softly that only she could hear. "Give me the microphone."

She gave it to me.

She didn't argue at all. That was what I would remember afterward.

I turned to the hall.

Keir's man was already at the sound table at the back, with a cable in his hand.

"Weeks ago, my husband put a camera in the Ashgrove dining room," I said.

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