Chapter 4: The Attorney Arrives
His name was Daniel Marsh, and he arrived forty minutes later.
He was the kind of attorney who didn't ask unnecessary questions.
He walked into the Blackwood mansion, set his briefcase on the dining table, and looked at the phone Lily had placed in front of him without touching it.
"Has anyone else handled this device?"
"Only me," Lily said.
"And Mr.
Blackwood.
He unlocked it to view the files."
"Timestamps intact?"
"Yes."
Daniel nodded once.
He looked at Victor.
"I'll need the recorder as well."
Victor placed it on the table beside the phone.
Serena was seated across the room in an armchair, her attorney on the phone beside her ear.
She had called him the moment Victor stepped into the hallway.
His name was Paul Greer, and he was expensive and fast, and he had told her, in a low voice that Lily had partially heard, to say nothing further until he arrived.
She had listened.
For the first time that evening, she was quiet.
Daniel looked at Rosa.
"You said you can confirm two of the dates on the recordings."
"Yes, sir."
"I'll need a written statement."
Rosa nodded.
Her hands had stopped shaking.
"And the cold room," Daniel said, turning back to Victor.
"Where is it?"
"Basement level.
Climate-controlled wine storage."
"Has it been used as anything else recently?"
Rosa answered before Victor could.
"Miss Serena used it three times that I know of.
When the baby wouldn't stop crying and she didn't want to hear him."
The room was very still.
Victor's jaw moved but he didn't speak.
Daniel made a note.
"How long were the incidents?"
"The longest was forty minutes," Rosa said.
"I timed it.
I stood outside the door.
I didn't have a key."
"Why didn't you have a key?"
Rosa looked at her hands.
"Miss Serena had the spare removed from the staff board two weeks after she moved in.
She said the wine was being disturbed."
Daniel wrote that down too.
Serena's voice came from across the room, flat and controlled.
"I want it noted that I have not agreed to any of this.
This is my private home as well, and I have rights."
Daniel looked up.
"This is Mr.
Blackwood's home, Ms.
Voss.
You are his fiancée.
That is a different legal standing."
"We're engaged."
"Yes." He returned to his notes.
"I'm aware."
Paul Greer arrived twenty-two minutes later.
He was tall, silver-haired, and he walked in already talking.
"Victor, I'd like to speak with my client privately before this goes any further."
"She can speak with you in the study," Victor said.
"Down the hall."
Serena stood.
She smoothed her dress.
She picked up her bag — and this time no one called out, because Daniel had already photographed the phone and bagged it in an evidence sleeve.
She saw it on the table as she passed.
She stopped walking.
"That's my property," she said.
"It was placed voluntarily on this table by the individual who recorded the footage," Daniel said without looking up.
"It is now part of a documented record."
"That's not—"
"Serena." Paul Greer's hand was at her elbow.
"Study.
Now."
She let herself be guided out.
The room exhaled.
Lily sat down for the first time since Victor had come home.
She adjusted Ethan on her lap.
He was almost asleep, his breathing slow and even, his small hand still wrapped around her collar.
Victor looked at her across the table.
"I owe you an apology," he said.
Lily shook her head.
"You didn't know."
"I should have known."
"She made sure you wouldn't."
Victor looked at his son's face.
Ethan's eyes were closed now, lashes dark against his cheek.
"Is he going to be all right?" Victor asked.
His voice was different when he said it.
Quieter.
Like the question cost him something.
"The doctor will confirm," Lily said.
"But he's calm right now.
He feels safe."
Victor nodded.
From down the hall came the sound of raised voices — Serena's, sharp and insistent, and Paul Greer's, low and firm.
Then a door closed.
Then silence.
Daniel looked up from his notes.
"Mr.
Blackwood.
I need to ask you something, and I need you to answer carefully."
Victor straightened.
"Go ahead."
"Is there anyone else in this household — staff, regular visitors, anyone — who may have witnessed incidents and not yet spoken?"
Victor looked at Rosa.
May you like
Rosa looked at the floor.
Then she said, very quietly: "There's the driver."
