The Phoenix's Rebirth for Revenge novel · Chapter 23 of 32

Chapter 23: The Honoree

I ran after her.

I got as far as the garden gate before Ambrose caught my arm.

A cab was pulling away at the bottom of the lane, and a white sneaker lay on its side in the cobbles.

"Let her go," he said. "She's got nowhere to run that the police can't find."

"She's got one place."

"Then they'll find her there too."

I turned around.

Twelve women in sun hats were standing on my grandmother's lawn with their teacups.

My mother had come down the garden path to meet the officers, one hand pressed flat over her pearls.

"Thank God," she said to them. "Thank God you got there in time."

The older officer had his notebook out.

"Ma'am, you told us at the front door your daughter never came into the house."

"I didn't know she had." My mother's eyes filled on cue. "Sabine took my key. I've been out here since noon."

She turned to the table.

"Haven't I?"

Twelve heads nodded.

One of them said, "She never left us."

I looked at the little glass dish of lemon slices on the table.

Through two walls, in the dark, I'd heard someone ask for more lemon.

"Who asked for the lemon?" I said.

The women looked at each other.

A grey-haired woman in a straw hat at the far end lifted her hand halfway.

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