Chapter 30 Saturday, 13 June 2026
‘We need to talk.’
Elle Harrington returned Hannah’s statement with a flat stare. Unperturbed, she raised her mug to her lips and drained the rest of her coffee.
Hannah placed her elbows on the bar beside Elle and leaned in. ‘I’m sorry my article cost you clients. That wasn’t my intent. But in light of Madison’s murder, can we please put that aside?’
With her fingertip, Elle drew a circle around the rim of her coffee mug. She wasn’t telling Hannah to fuck off, but she wasn’t exactly warming to her either.
Hannah drew in a steadying breath and leaned closer. This had better work. ‘I know about senior year. Madison and Mr Harris.’
Elle gave her a quizzical look, then let out a long sigh. ‘Fine. We do need to talk – but not here.’ She stood and, without waiting to see if Hannah was behind her, crossed through the archway and into the dining room in a cloud of rustling chiffon.
For a moment, Hannah hung back, stunned. Five hours ago, Elle had brushed her aside like a pair of knockoff Louboutins. But now, miraculously, something had changed. She shoved away from the bar and hurried to follow Elle’s retreating back.
Elle passed the buffet tables and entered the short hall with the bathrooms. But instead of pushing open the door to the ladies’ room, she turned the crystal knob on the door at the end of the hall, labelled Staff.
The knob turned easily and Elle slipped inside and switched on the light. She motioned for Hannah to follow.
Hannah blinked. They were inside a large, walk-in linen closet – tablecloths, cloth napkins, drawers of silverware. With a firm click, Elle shut the door behind them.
‘So I gather you don’t think I’m a killer,’ Hannah said. The closet was large, for a closet, but it was nevertheless a confined space. Presumably Elle felt safe, shut in here with her.
Elle smirked. ‘I know for a fact you didn’t kill Madison – which is the only reason we’re speaking right now.’
‘Okay.’ Hannah crossed her arms over her chest. ‘What changed?’
Elle gathered her gown in her hands and slid down to the floor, leaning her back against a tall cabinet. Metallic chiffon billowed out around her. ‘At first, I did think it was you. You’d just been talking to us, and that seditious little article… But that was before I spoke to the detectives.’
Hannah followed suit, taking a seat on the closet floor and tamping down the urge to snap back about her article. ‘You learned something from the detectives?’
She nodded. ‘We’ll get to that.’
Hannah frowned, unhappy to let Elle steer the conversation, but what choice did she have? She needed information, and Elle wasn’t going to let herself be managed.
‘I only came tonight for Bash’s sake,’ Elle said. ‘After graduation, Madison and I barely spoke for six years, did you know that?’
Hannah shook her head.
‘I’d had enough of her games. I was happy in Boston, happy with Edward.
But then I returned to New York, to open Harrington Strategic Insight, and by that time Madison had met Henry.
We ran into each other at the Met Gala… it would have been May 2023.
I said I’d join her for one catch-up lunch.
Soon, we were seeing each other regularly.
It was like old times, but without the constant rivalry. She’d grown up – or so I thought.’
‘And then?’ Hannah prompted. She wasn’t sure where Elle was going with this – and she wanted to turn the topic back to Mr Harris – but her gut said to keep her mouth shut and hear Elle out.
‘And then Teddie called me out of the blue. We’d seen each other from time to time over the years, but we haven’t been close in a long time. He called two or three weeks ago, the day Madison pulled out of her brand partnership with Concord Hospitality. Teddie was, understandably, livid.’
Hannah’s heart rate picked up. Did Elle think Theo had killed Madison?
‘He told me he was done with Mads – and that he had something to confess. It had been weighing on his mind for a decade, and he needed me to know the truth.’
Hannah’s breath caught. She nodded along while Elle laid out the details of Theo’s senior year pact with Madison.
‘She made me believe – made everyone believe – that it had been Teddie in those bedroom shots with Gemma. Then when I still hadn’t ended things, she manipulated him into breaking up with me. ’
When she was done, Elle’s eyes shone. She studied Hannah’s face. ‘But you knew all that, didn’t you?’
Hannah flinched. ‘Most of it. They were arguing at Madison’s after-prom party. I overheard.’
‘And you didn’t say a word.’
Hannah sighed. ‘I’m sorry. You deserved to know the truth, but Madison threatened to make Ami’s life hell for the next two years, and you know she was serious. I had to look out for my little sister.’
Elle gave her a tight smile. ‘I get it. I probably wouldn’t have told me either.’
Hannah returned her smile, then Elle’s eyes hardened again, and the moment passed.
‘Anyway, I was furious with Madison. All this time, she’d let me believe Gemma Phipps was responsible for destroying my planned-to-perfection future with Teddie.
We were supposed to be the Queen and King of New York – not Madison and Henry.
But it was never Gemma. Dating a Fitzgerald gave me a serious edge, and Madison couldn’t stand it. ’
‘Theo said more or less the same, that night at the party.’
‘Teddie’s a smart boy.’ Her voice was bitter.
A knot formed in Hannah’s stomach. Elle had arrived at the Lenox Club tonight furious with Madison, and so had Theo.
He’d been so convincing when they’d spoken earlier, but she couldn’t rule out the possibility that the two of them had planned her murder together.
She shifted, tucking her legs beneath her.
Maybe allowing herself to be led into this closet hadn’t been the brightest idea.
She drew in a deep, calming breath. Elle’s motive was crystal clear, but something told Hannah to trust her anyway.
If Elle had murdered Madison, there would be no reason for her to choose Hannah as her confessor, and Elle was still Elle.
Most likely, there was another reason she’d finally decided to open up. Elle wanted something.
Hannah straightened. Time was ticking away; she had to take control of the conversation and bring things back to Mr Harris before Elle revealed her true purpose.
‘Theo said something else that night, at the after-prom party. He accused Madison of breaking their pact. He said he knew she’d been in a secret relationship all spring, and she didn’t deny it. Alex knew too; he was sure it was someone at Prescott, but he didn’t know who Madison had been seeing.’
Elle rested the back of her head against the cabinet door. ‘Oh, that.’
So she did know. Hannah leaned in, her face close to Elle’s. If she was going to get the information she needed, she’d have to lay all her cards on the table. ‘It was Mr Harris, wasn’t it? Madison’s secret boyfriend.’
Elle keeled over in laughter, sending Hannah reeling back. Her hands hit the floor behind her, and she caught herself. Elle was laughing so hard tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.
What the fuck? Hannah’s brows narrowed. A relationship between a student and a teacher was unethical at best, traumatising at worst. Did Elle think it was some kind of joke?
Finally, Elle recovered enough to sit up straight again. ‘Sorry, but no.’ She swiped at her eyes. ‘Madison hated Mr Harris, and he hated her right back. You were there, you saw them in class. There’s no way they were secretly screwing around.’
‘It would have been a pretty good act, if they’d wanted to keep their affair a secret,’ Hannah challenged.
Elle shrugged. ‘I guess, but still no. Madison was dating someone senior year, but it definitely wasn’t Mr Harris.’
‘Who then?’
Elle pressed her lips together.
Hannah pushed. ‘Elle, come on. This could be important. Someone murdered Madison, in case you’ve forgotten.’
‘Oh fine, but Madison’s high school romance had nothing to do with tonight’s events. Spring of senior year, Madison and Beatrice got together. They were cute. I knew, and Bash knew. No one else.’
Hannah’s eyes widened as her mind reeled back to that spring. She’d asked if Beatrice was dating someone, and she’d told Hannah in no uncertain terms that it was none of her business. Which had been true! Inwardly, she cringed at the decade-old memory.
‘And Madison kept it a secret because she didn’t want it to get out that she was dating a girl?’ Hannah asked.
Elle shook her head. ‘I thought so, at the time. But it was only a secret because she couldn’t let Teddie find out she was breaking their pact. She wasn’t willing to take the risk that Teddie and I would get back together.’
‘Christ, okay…’
‘Beatrice didn’t get it, though. She wanted to go public, and Madison wouldn’t let her. Beatrice was really hurt, and eventually, she broke it off. A couple of weeks before graduation.’
Maybe her Mr Harris theory was dead in the water, but there was still something here. Madison had been in a relationship she’d kept secret, on her terms. Was Beatrice still angry with Madison all these years later?
‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Elle said, interrupting Hannah’s train of thought. ‘But Beatrice moved on years ago. She’s engaged to Swan Aduba now – the singer? Anyway, you’ve got it all wrong.’
‘Then tell me. What did you learn from the detectives? Do you know who killed Madison?’
Elle stretched out her legs and crossed them at the ankles. ‘I saw him, with my own eyes, following her down the hall to the ladies’ room.’
‘Who?’
‘He was wearing that tacky emerald green jacket. The lights were out, but even in the darkness, you could see it shimmering in the hall. It stood out like a sore thumb.’
Hannah felt herself go still. ‘Oliver?’
Elle nodded. ‘The detectives got multiple reports tonight. A man in an emerald green tux walking down the hallway towards the restrooms just after the lights went out. They didn’t ask you about it?’