Chapter 11 - The reason Lily screamed
I asked Lily how she knew not to let me drink.
Her answer had nothing to do with chemistry.
She saw Nora make the tea.
Then saw Andrew enter.
He walked toward the table after Nora left.
Lily hid behind a curtain because she wasn't supposed to be in the formal dining room alone.
Andrew opened something.
She couldn't see what.
Then he touched the sugar bowl.
After he left, Eleanor entered.
She moved the cup.
Later Nora returned.
Lily told her:
“The man touched Daddy's sugar.”
Nora didn't believe her.
Or claimed she didn't understand.
Then Lily heard Nora speaking on the phone.
“What did she say?”
Lily remembered only one sentence.
“He can't find out today.”
I looked at Nora.
“Who were you talking to?”
“My father.”
My chest tightened.
“What couldn't I find out?”
“Who I was.”
Not poisoning.
Identity.
Andrew had called Nora and threatened to reveal that she was his daughter unless she gave him Claire's hidden evidence.
Nora panicked.
When Lily screamed, Nora thought the child was about to expose her identity.
So she grabbed her.
That explained the behavior.
It did not excuse it.
“Why did you say stop?”
“Because I thought she was going to say Andrew's name.”
“And instead she saved me.”
Nora looked at Lily.
“Yes.”
I couldn't look at her the same way.
Then Andrew finally agreed to speak through counsel.
He denied poisoning me.
But he admitted touching the sugar bowl.
“Why?”
“To remove something.”
“What?”
“A folded paper.”
He claimed Claire had once hidden microfilm-like archival strips inside household containers.
That sounded bizarre until Eleanor confirmed Claire used unusual hiding places.
“What paper?”
Andrew said it contained an account number.
He removed it.
“Did you put anything into the sugar?”
“No.”
Could he prove it?
No.
Then he said:
“Ask Nora what she bought three days earlier.”
Nora's face changed.
We checked.
She had purchased a household pest-control concentrate.
The active ingredient was chemically related to what had been detected in the tea.
My stomach dropped.
Nora immediately protested.
“We had ants!”
True.
I remembered complaining about them.
The product was stored in the garage.
Container partly used.
Could accidental cross-contamination occur?
Possible but unlikely at the measured concentration.
Did Nora deliberately poison me?
Still not proven.
Then Andrew produced a message from Nora:
If Daniel learns what Claire found, everything is over.
Sent two days before the incident.
I stared at her.
“What did Claire find?”
Nora began crying.
“My father's confession.”
May you like
Not about money.
About Claire's accident.
