Chapter 30 Saturday, 13 June 2026 #2
Hannah shook her head. ‘I spoke to them first, remember? No one would have tipped them off yet.’
‘Right, well. They asked me more questions about you and Oliver Morgan than they did about me. Their investigation is narrowing – but they must not have enough to make an arrest. Which I guess is good for you.’
Slowly, Hannah shook her head. It was no revelation that she was still a person of interest – but Oliver?
Something about this didn’t feel right. Sure, maybe Oliver had been walking down the hall after Madison – to the men’s room.
His presence in her vicinity shortly before her murder was entirely circumstantial.
It held no more water than Hannah speaking to Madison minutes before she died.
‘But why would Oliver kill her?’ Hannah asked. ‘Yes, she made his life miserable at Prescott, but she made lots of lives miserable back then. Oliver’s moved on. He’s doing fantastically well for himself now. I truly don’t think he gives two shits about Madison DuPont.’
Elle tilted her head to one side. ‘You and Oliver stayed close, right? Do you really not know about what went down on Henry’s campaign?’
Hannah shrugged. ‘Oliver did some videography for Henry. That’s all he told me. Frankly, I thought everything between Oliver and Madison was water under the bridge.’
‘Hardly. Madison got him fired.’
‘Fired?’ That’s not what Oliver had said earlier. I recorded a couple of events for Henry, then I found him a full-time videographer. I really don’t have the time for gig work these days – and I certainly don’t need the money.
Elle continued. ‘She told Henry they didn’t need “new money trash tainting his campaign”.
Classic Mads. But there was more to it. I can’t get into the details, but suffice to say that prior to Richard Beaumont’s death, before Bash’s takeover of the company, Richard and Henry were involved in something illicit.
Madison was terrified that the scandal would break and Winslow’s name would come out. So she blackmailed Bash.’
Hannah’s mind clicked and whirred. Elle was being deliberately vague, but she could fill in the missing pieces from the conversation she’d overheard earlier in the night. Bash’s words came crashing back. I vowed that this time, I wouldn’t let Madison win.
‘Except Bash wouldn’t stand for it,’ Elle said, confirming Hannah’s memory. ‘He refused to be blackmailed. Instead, he told Oliver everything.’
That made Hannah sit up straight. ‘Why? Bash and Oliver aren’t exactly chummy.’
‘No. But Oliver had the online platform to bury Henry, if Bash gave him the word. It was a calculated move on Bash’s part. Leverage against Madison.’
‘Okay, I’m following.’
‘Madison was positively apoplectic when she found out, of course,’ Elle went on.
‘She wasn’t about to let Oliver Morgan, of all people, hold a single scrap of power over her.
So she demanded that Henry fire him, then she started a campaign to sabotage his YouTube channel.
You may have noticed his follower count has taken a header in the past few weeks? ’
Hannah shook her head. She hadn’t noticed, but then again, she paid as little attention as possible to that sort of thing. And Oliver hadn’t breathed a word about any of it.
‘When did you learn all this?’
‘Bash and I had a few little chats tonight.’
Hannah had eavesdropped on one of them, but clearly she’d missed a few key details. Still, she wasn’t convinced that any of this added up to Madison’s violent death.
‘Is that it?’ she asked. ‘I believe Oliver was angry with Madison. But murder, really?’
‘Yes, really!’ Elle’s eyes flashed.
Hannah gave her an appraising look. ‘If you want me to buy that Oliver killed Madison, you’re going to have to tell me everything he knew. The details.’
Elle frowned, then laced her fingers together in her lap.
‘I’m serious. I know you’re trying to protect Bash, and I believe he didn’t know what his father and Winslow were up to. But I need the whole story, Elle.’
Elle glowered. ‘Fine. Henry and Richard had a mutually beneficial, and highly illegal, financial arrangement. As CFO, Edward oversaw the accounts.’ She shifted her legs, and chiffon rustled around her.
‘I didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes at Beaumont when Edward and I were together, but I’m no dummy.
I knew Edward was involved in something illicit, and he had no intention of cleaning up his act.
When I launched Harrington Strategic Insight, I ended things. ’
‘Okay…’
‘Anyway, Bash took over the company, and Edward left to join a firm on Wall Street. Those two have never seen eye to eye – and Bash has been trying to clean up Edward’s mess ever since.
When Edward settled into his new position, he wanted to establish a new arrangement, but Henry’s political ambitions complicated things. ’
‘As in, when Winslow went from being a billionaire to a billionaire planning a run for public office?’
‘Precisely. So Edward went to Madison instead. She told me they met at some Italian social club in Brooklyn, where Henry’s a member. Edward had put together a new portfolio of opportunities for Madison and Henry to review.’
Hannah frowned. ‘You’re going to have to spell it out for me.’
Elle rolled her eyes. ‘Private information Edward had access to, through his job. Opportunities for insider trading.’
Hannah’s mind spun. ‘You’re saying that Oliver knows the truth about all of this – Henry’s dirty dealings with Beaumont Capital, and now with Edward at his new firm?’
‘Yes. Bash has his faults, but he’s squeaky clean when it comes to Beaumont’s finances. He laid it all out for Oliver soon after Winslow made his mayoral bid public.’
‘Okay, following. And in retribution, Madison orchestrated Oliver’s firing from Winslow’s campaign and began a crusade against his vlog. I get how that would be motive – but how does Oliver know it was Madison pulling the strings?’
Elle’s voice was flat. ‘Because I told him.’
‘What – why?’
‘After Teddie opened up to me about the real reason for our breakup, I was furious. Sure, Madison and I had a friendly competition going while we were at Prescott, but sabotaging my future was a bridge too far. So, I told Oliver the truth: Madison had gotten him fired, and she was behind his rapidly declining follower count. I thought Oliver might trash talk her on his little vlog, that maybe he’d go after her Instagram account in retaliation.
Some petty drama. I didn’t think he’d kill her. ’
‘And you’re sure it was Oliver you saw outside the ladies’ room tonight?’
Madison nodded. ‘Positive. That green tux practically glows in the dark. He murdered Madison, and it’s my fault. Look, I was mad as hell, but I didn’t want her dead. That’s why I need you, Hannah.’
Here it was. The thing Elle wanted.
Hannah winced. ‘Me?’
‘The detectives don’t have enough to make an arrest. Just the backstory I told them, and, according to Bash, several eyewitness accounts of Oliver in the hallway. But you know as well as I do that Madison’s murder is going to get pinned on you if the cops don’t ID the real killer.’
Hannah swallowed. Yes, she was well aware.
‘And you want to save my ass why?’
Elle smirked. ‘This isn’t about you. Madison could be cruel, and fucking infuriating, but she was still my friend. She didn’t deserve to die. And there’ll be no justice if the wrong person gets locked up for her murder.’
‘Okay,’ Hannah said slowly. She believed that.
But what the hell was she supposed to do about it?
She hadn’t seen Oliver in the hallway. And everything she’d learned tonight was second-hand.
Gossip. If Oliver had really killed Madison, there was no way she’d willingly go down for his crime.
Trouble was, she had nothing concrete, nothing Elle hadn’t already brought to the detectives.
Unless… Something nagged at Hannah. Something she’d buried ten years ago.
‘Of everyone here tonight, you’re the closest to Oliver.’ Elle’s voice was pleading now. ‘You were friends at school. I’ve seen you together multiple times tonight. So please, Hannah, I need you to think – is there anything else the detectives should know? Anything at all?’