The Missing Heir novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Chopin

I reached the chapel in nine minutes, with my hair still wet from the shower.

The woman in the front pew sat very straight.

She wore a camel coat and a double strand of pearls, and a black cane lay across her knees.

Her white hair was cut in a smooth pageboy that did not move when she turned her head.

She was in her sixties, and she looked like a person who had not been surprised by anything in years.

Today she looked struck.

"Mrs. Everhart?" the chaplain was saying.

He was seventy, with bad knees, and he hovered beside her.

"Mr. Doe is on his way up from the cafeteria."

"Thank you."

Her voice was exact.

"I'm in no hurry."

I stopped in the doorway.

The woman glanced at me and her eyes were pale gray, almost silver.

"You're the doctor," she said.

"Gwen Pallister."

"I'm told you stood up to my nephew."

"I threw a letter in a bin."

"So I'm told."

Something that was almost a smile crossed her face and went away.

"Come in and sit down, Doctor.

I'd like a witness."

I sat at the end of the pew.

A moment later the chapel door opened.

Micah came in still wearing the plastic apron from the pit, with a damp towel over his shoulder.

He stopped when he saw her.

Mrs. Everhart rose, slowly, leaning on the cane.

She was tall, and she stood eye to eye with him.

For a long moment she said nothing at all.

She looked at his face, his cast, and the pale scar through his left eyebrow.

Her hand tightened on the cane until the knuckles went white.

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