Chapter 4 - The Man Ronan Trusted Most Was the Last Person His Mother Had Ever Feared
They spent the night in one of Ronan's private safe houses.
Tessa did not sleep.
Neither did Ronan.
The photograph sat between them.
Daniel Vale smiled from the past.
He looked harmless.
Distinguished.
Like a man who belonged in a charity gala instead of a murder investigation.
Ronan stared at the image.
"I trusted him."
Tessa asked, "Why?"
"Because when my mother died, he was the first person who found me."
"Where?"
"At the house."
Tessa looked up.
"What happened?"
Ronan leaned back.
"I was nineteen."
His voice changed.
"My mother had sent me upstairs."
She had told him she wanted to speak with someone.
Then the fire started.
Ronan remembered smoke.
Screaming.
Glass breaking.
He remembered running downstairs.
He remembered seeing his mother on the floor.
He remembered Daniel pulling him outside.
He remembered his father's blood.
But there was one thing he didn't remember.
Who started the fire.
For fourteen years, everyone had believed it was a rival gang.
Ronan had spent his entire adult life destroying the men responsible.
Now the notebook suggested otherwise.
Tessa looked at him.
"Do you think Daniel did it?"
"I don't know."
"Do you trust him?"
"No."
"Then we have a problem."
Ronan smiled bitterly.
"We have several."
At dawn, they returned to Beaumont House.
The restaurant had been closed.
Police had arrived.
But Ronan controlled the building.
He walked into the kitchen.
Everything looked different.
The broken pot.
Blood on the floor.
The abandoned stove.
Tessa walked toward her station.
Then she stopped.
The blue tin was gone.
She looked at Ronan.
"It was here."
"What?"
"My spice tin."
Security searched.
Nothing.
Someone had taken it.
Ronan's expression hardened.
"Find every camera."
They did.
At 5:42 p.m., an employee entered the kitchen.
Danny Price.
The young kitchen assistant.
Tessa stared.
"That's impossible."
Ronan asked, "Why?"
"He was with me."
"During the attack?"
"No."
Before the shooting.
Danny had been beside her when she opened the spice tin.
The footage showed something else.
Danny wasn't stealing it.
He was placing something beside it.
A small black device.
Ronan leaned closer.
"Camera."
Tessa felt sick.
"Someone was watching me cook."
"Yes."
"And they knew what I was making."
"Yes."
"Then the attack wasn't because I accidentally discovered the recipe."
Ronan looked at her.
"They wanted you to cook it."
Tessa's blood ran cold.
"Why?"
Ronan's phone rang.
He answered.
"Boss."
"What?"
"We found the missing tin."
"Where?"
"Inside Chef Voss's office."
Ronan's eyes narrowed.
"Voss?"
"He wasn't poisoned."
"What?"
"The hospital ran tests."
Ronan went still.
"What happened to him?"
"Drugged."
Tessa whispered, "Someone knocked him out."
Ronan nodded.
"Why?"
"To make room for me."
Ronan looked at her.
"Exactly."
The plan became clear.
Someone had deliberately removed the chef.
Someone had created a situation where Tessa would step into the kitchen.
Someone knew Eda's recipe.
Someone knew Ronan would recognize it.
And someone wanted Ronan emotionally vulnerable.
Tessa asked, "Why?"
Ronan looked at the empty bowl from the previous night.
"Because my mother used that dish as a code."
"A code?"
"She cooked it only for people she trusted."
Tessa's eyes widened.
"Then the person who arranged all this wanted you to believe your mother was speaking to you."
Ronan stared at her.
"Or wanted me to remember something."
Suddenly, Tessa remembered something.
A phrase Eda had repeated throughout her childhood.
"Never trust the man who knows the second ingredient."
She had thought it was nonsense.
Now she understood.
She told Ronan.
His face changed.
"Second ingredient."
"What?"
"My mother had a secret test."
"For what?"
"She asked people to identify the second ingredient."
Tessa frowned.
"What's the second ingredient?"
Ronan whispered.
"That's the point."
He took the notebook.
The recipe listed ingredients.
But one had been crossed out.
Tessa stared.
"There's something missing."
Ronan nodded.
"Exactly."
He called Clara.
"Find every surviving member of my mother's staff."
Then he looked at Tessa.
"You said Eda taught you this."
"Yes."
"Then Eda knew the missing ingredient."
Tessa shook her head.
"I don't remember."
Ronan studied her.
"You will."
That night, Tessa dreamed of Eda.
The old woman stood beside the stove.
She held the blue tin.
And she said something Tessa had never heard before.
"Tell Ronan the truth."
Tessa woke screaming.
On her bedside table was a note.
She hadn't placed it there.
May you like
Four words.
YOUR TEACHER LIED TO YOU.
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