Chapter 25
glenn
Over the video call, Vera looked like she’d seen a ghost. She was haunted by countless of them, but she’d never looked like this before.
Resolutely, cast in the soft glow of a halogen lamp in the rain-streaked darkness of the house around her, she held up the supplied Whitecliff knife, stained in blood.
“It’s done,” she said. “Elaine is dead.”
“Excellent work. And the body?”
“Things got a bit… tight. I had to dispose of it on the spot.”
She was glassy-eyed and speaking in half-formed thoughts. I folded my arms on the desk, leaning closer. “What happened? You know the consequences for concealing things from me, Vera.”
“We were out. I thought we’d be safer. Full-scale Whitecliff assault, trying to kill me specifically. It was brutal. We escaped, but… I knew we wouldn’t escape from the next one. I had to kill her there. Cut her up and dumped her in the river.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You defeated the purpose of the Whitecliff blade. How are we going to prove she’s dead without incriminating ourselves in the process now?”
She looked down. “I am sorry, Sir. I plan to just… act as the legal executor in her absence to carry on with the project.”
“It’s not like you to be reckless, Vera.”
“I am sorry.”
“I believe this is the first time you have disappointed me. We will have a long talk when you return.”
She nodded. I sat up taller.
“But in the meantime, the job is done. I will see to it that the Horizon plans can begin immediately. You are dismissed, Vera.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
I ended the call, and I shut off the computer, stepping away from the damnable thing and walking away, heading upstairs.
I made it up to my office, where the window was streaked with rain, lightning cutting shapes in the midnight-blue sky, and I was there for some time before a knock came from the door.
“Enter.”
I knew who it was from the silence—the door opened and closed in quiet precision, footsteps any lesser man would have missed. I glanced back at Quayle, who sidled up to the window next to me.
“Vera is hiding something,” I said. “We will give her some time to come clean. And if she does not… we’ll pay her a visit.”
He nodded.