Chapter 5 Adesua Ridley #2
Adesua felt clarity rush over her. This was indeed not a dream but very much real.
It had been a struggle for Dale. All his belongings were scattered around the pond.
She noticed his large briefcase from earlier, the lock broken.
Adesua didn’t know why that stuck out to her the most, but it did.
It had been dented. The files that had been carefully placed inside were now scattered around the path like streams of confetti.
Oh, how she wished it were confetti. The pieces of paper had different names on each of them: the Vanderbilts, the Grants, others from high society, some names she’d never heard before.
Then she saw one name she hadn’t noticed at first. The Ridleys. She, along with a now more coherent Kavita, who was more silent than she had been all night, snatched up the file.
“Does that say our name?” Kavita asked. She look petrified as she stared at Adesua’s hand.
Amelia and Henrik rushed over to her. Henrik immediately shook his head.
“No . . . no, we don’t need to look at this. This isn’t right,” he said.
Adesua sent Kavita a devilish glare. Because why wouldn’t they look at papers that had their name on it?
Unless there was something of Henrik’s in there that he didn’t want them to see.
Adesua furrowed her brow, trying to understand the meaning of why they should respect the privacy of a now-dead man like Dale.
When he’d never hesitated to taunt them.
Kavita snapped her eyes to Henrik. “What isn’t right? Him stalking our lives and doing think pieces on all of us and how we are horrible people?”
Adesua held on to the file tightly, not wanting to let go.
Her eyes landed on a shattered champagne bottle that dripped with blood.
To the naked eye, this was not an accident but a murder.
She wondered whether anyone thought the same as her, or was she once again overthinking, as she did with everything?
Amelia grabbed the file from Adesua’s hands so firmly, it made Adesua jump.
“Henrik is right. We should at least wait until Wei, Omar, and Diego get here,” said Amelia.
Just as Amelia said their names, Wei ran to them with Omar and Diego following behind.
“Are you all okay?”
Wei’s instincts instantly had him panicked as he checked Adesua, then Kavita, who pushed him away as he got closer and grabbed their faces.
Adesua found it peculiar how quickly they’d all gotten here.
Why was everyone so eerily close to the maze?
The grounds of the party extended far, but all seven of them had been near the maze at the same time. Wei stopped at Amelia.
“Mellie, why the hell are you wet?”
Adesua saw Amelia looking down at her soiled dress and pointed to the body without saying a word.
Adesua took a look at her, not even realizing what a mess the scene was.
The glass champagne bottle covered in blood near the edge of the pond surely didn’t help.
It could be seen as a murder weapon that someone had carelessly left behind.
To Adesua, Amelia looked unbothered that she was the one who had just helped pull Dale’s body out.
At least Kavita looked as if she were entranced by a spell.
“Did anyone touch that?” Wei asked.
They all looked at the bottle. Henrik twitched nervously.
“I did . . . I tried to move it out of the way when I was getting out of the pond with Amelia. I didn’t realize there was blood on it,” Henrik said apologetically.
Omar and Wei shook their heads in disbelief.
Of course their younger brother would make a foolish decision like that.
Without hesitating, Adesua went to the bottle and smashed it with her heel, then kicked the shards to the bottom of the pond.
She wasn’t going to let her younger brother be seen as part of something she knew deep down in her heart he wouldn’t do.
She had a quick passing thought that maybe someone would try to blame it on her, as she’d been seen outside the maze first. Henrik’s eagerness to touch a potential murder weapon was cause for concern.
No one said a word about what she did. They all knew what the implications would be if his fingerprints were found on the bottle.
Especially with Wei getting into altercations with guests earlier.
They had all looked angry, all night. From Adesua feeling that twinge of jealousy toward Amelia to Kavita taking the spotlight on a night that was supposed to be about all of them.
From Omar always making calculating moves to get out from under Father’s wing to Diego and Henrik despising how Father had forced them to work at the Ridley Line.
They all looked guilty, and Adesua knew they all had a motive to get rid of Dale, no matter how much she denied it.
She could tell her siblings did, too, from the looks on their faces.
Amelia took this as a chance to open the file with their name on it. The Ridleys was written in bold. Adesua’s heart sank when she saw it. What did he have on them?
Omar walked up to Amelia, taking the file just as she’d done with Adesua. Omar was never one to say things in tense situations; he usually let the fire burn itself out. Adesua could see him gripping the folder as if he wanted to rip it to shreds.
“I, for one, feel like we need to burn it now. No one needs to know our dirt—not even ourselves,” he said smoothly.
One by one, they all nodded in agreement. Adesua knew she wasn’t the only one with something to hide.
“We need to get Tom immediately and call the authorities. The longer we wait, the more guilty we all look,” she said apprehensively.
“Wei and Omar should leave with Diego,” Amelia added. “We can’t all be caught standing around a dead body when the cops come. It needs to be us girls and Henrik, as we were the ones to find him.”
The boys each looked ready to give their two cents, but after further thought, they knew she was right. They were all standing there like lambs waiting to be slaughtered. “I will watch over the file in the meantime while you three go,” Adesua said firmly.
“All right, you’re right. Let’s go, boys,” Omar said reluctantly.
Adesua knew there would be a power struggle between the boys and Amelia.
They wouldn’t argue with her for taking it.
Omar placed the file folder down on the bench between them.
Footsteps and laughter drifted across the garden.
Adesua looked at Wei, knowing they had run out of time, and they all seemingly fell into line: Amelia and Henrik stood over Dale’s body in shock.
The others were panicking as if they’d just discovered it.
The sounds of laughter suddenly turned to screams. A group of girls pointed at the dead body frantically, covering their faces at the horror of it.
Suddenly, Mrs. Darla came along with Mr. Jenkins, and people were now gathering handfuls of their clothes around their chests as if they were clutching pearls.
Elion and then Jamison ran through the growing bustling crowd, trying to get to them.
A woman fainted, and people were now huddling around her. Adesua knew something must be done.
“Everyone, we must remain calm as we wait for help for Dale,” Adesua yelled in a reassuring tone.
Adesua knew there was no help that could bring Dale back to life.
Mrs. Darla saw it too. Jamison, Elion, Wei, and Omar took advantage of their statures, ushering the crowd back.
Adesua went to retrieve towels for Amelia and Henrik, still soaking wet from getting Dale’s body out of the pond.
She couldn’t stand being in the same area as a dead body.
Just then, as if the staff already knew what was going on, they came running with towels.
Adesua grabbed two. She knew they needed to inform the police.
Even though they’d said the situation was under control, it was not.
As Adesua threw the towels to Amelia and Henrik, her body froze as she looked down at the bench.
The file. How could she have forgotten it?
She looked under the now very empty bench.
She widened her eyes, trying to catch the gazes of her siblings, then looked back toward the bench.
The file was gone. All their faces were as stone cold as Dale’s.
There was most definitely a need to be concerned about it being gone.
The way all her siblings seemed unfazed by him lying there, lifeless, made her wonder: What daunting things had they each done? And who on earth had taken the file?