Chapter 21: Gordon

The shareholders' meeting filled the Throckmorton atrium by ten.

Four hundred people stood or sat in rows of folding chairs, and the cameras lined the balcony rail above them.

Gordon stood alone at a lectern on the marble floor.

He had not been arrested.

The district attorney needed one more piece of proof, and he knew it.

"Fellow owners," he said, and his voice rolled warm over the crowd.

"I called this meeting out of love for my family, and out of duty."

Lucinda sat in the front row with Alden on her left and Eleanor on her right.

Eleanor's back was perfectly straight.

"For three years, my niece lived under a false name in the home of Eleanor Ferrars," Gordon said.

"This woman knew whose daughter she was. She knew we were searching, and grieving."

He paused.

"And she said nothing."

A murmur ran through the rows.

"She kept her behind a wall. She gave her a husband she had chosen. She cut her off from her own family."

He turned to the front row.

"Mrs. Ferrars, I ask you in front of everyone. Why?"

Eleanor rose.

Her hands did not shake this time.

She walked to the second microphone in the aisle and stood a moment looking at him.

"Because of you, Gordon," she said.

The room went quiet.

"I sat on the hospital board with your brother for eleven years."

She did not raise her voice.

"Two weeks before he died, he told me you were taking money from the company. He told me he was afraid of you."

"That is a lie."

"He said, if anything happens to me, look after my girl."

Gordon's smile slipped.

"A week after the funeral, her car went off Hollis Hill Road."

She took a step toward the cameras.

"The morning news said the heiress was dead. Then a girl with her face walked into my sitting room."

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