Nora grabbed the brass ceremonial candlestick beside the flowers.
“What are you doing?”
“Opening it.”
“You can’t!”
She swung.
The heavy base slammed into the coffin latch.
Metal snapped.
Gasps filled the room.
Julian seized her arm.
She drove her shoulder into his chest.
He stumbled backward.
Sophie rushed forward.
“Again!”
Nora struck the second latch.
It broke.
Two men from the back row came to help.
Together they lifted the lid.
A terrible silence followed.
The person inside was not Eleanor Ashcroft.
A man lay in the coffin.
He was perhaps forty.
His face was bruised.
His wrists had been bound with plastic ties.
A strip of black tape covered his mouth.
Around one hand was a thin brass chain.
At the end of the chain was a tiny bell.
Nora recognized it immediately.
It belonged to the missing tide clock.
The man had been ringing it against the side of the coffin.
Sophie whispered, “Who is that?”
Nora ripped the tape from his mouth.
He dragged air into his lungs.
“Water,” he croaked.
Someone brought a glass.
The man drank, coughed, then looked toward the front row.
His expression changed.
Fear.
Pure fear.
“Lock the doors.”
No one moved.
He tried again.
“Lock the doors!”
Julian Cross turned toward the exit.
Nora saw him.
“So did Sophie.”
“Julian?”
He stopped.
Sophie stared at him.
“What is happening?”
The man in the coffin struggled to sit upright.
“My name is Gabriel Rowan.”
A murmur went through the older guests.
Sophie looked confused.
One of the company lawyers did not.
He whispered, “Rowan?”
Nora looked at him.
“You know him?”
The lawyer swallowed.
“He’s an investigative auditor.”
Gabriel nodded weakly.
“Ashcroft Maritime hired me six months ago.”
Julian’s voice cut across the room.
“That’s a lie.”
Gabriel laughed painfully.
“No, Julian. The lie is in Singapore. And Cyprus. And Rotterdam. And twelve shell companies you thought nobody would connect.”
The room became silent again.
Julian stepped backward.
Sophie looked between them.
“What shell companies?”
Gabriel pulled himself higher.
“Your grandmother discovered millions were being moved out of Ashcroft Maritime through fake shipping contracts.”
All eyes moved to Julian.
He remained remarkably calm.
“This man has clearly been assaulted. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“I know exactly what I’m saying.”
He looked at Nora.
“Eleanor found the transfers. She asked me to trace them. Yesterday I came to Briar House with the final report.”
Nora’s mouth went dry.
“The night of the fire?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Gabriel looked at Julian.
“He was waiting.”
Julian suddenly reached inside his jacket.
Someone screamed.
But he did not pull out a weapon.
He pulled out a phone.
Nora moved faster.
She slapped it from his hand.
The device shattered against the floor.
Julian lunged for it.
Sophie stepped between them.
“No.”
He stared at her.
“Move.”
“No.”
For the first time, Julian’s perfect composure fractured.
“Sophie, you don’t understand what your grandmother was doing.”
“What were you doing?”
“Protecting the company.”
“By putting a man inside her coffin?”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.”
There it was.
Not a confession.
But close enough.
Guests began reaching for their phones.
Julian saw them.
“You think this is simple?” he shouted. “You think Eleanor was some saint? She was about to destroy a company employing twelve thousand people because she suddenly developed a conscience at eighty-one.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“She was going to expose you.”
Julian looked toward the doors.
Two security guards stood there.
For a moment, Nora expected them to restrain him.
Instead, they closed the doors.
Locked them.
Nora felt the room change.
The guards were with Julian.
Sophie saw it too.
“Julian.”
“Nobody leaves until we resolve this.”
Panic spread.
People began shouting.
One guest tried the doors.
Locked.
Another moved toward a side corridor.
The second guard blocked him.
Julian looked at Gabriel.
“Where is the report?”
Gabriel smiled through a split lip.
“You never found it.”
Julian stepped toward the coffin.
“Where is it?”
Gabriel said nothing.
Julian grabbed him by the collar.
Nora struck Julian’s arm away.
“Don’t touch him.”
Julian turned on her.
“You have no idea what you’ve walked into.”
“I walked into a funeral with the wrong man in the coffin. That’s enough.”
“The report.”
Gabriel looked at Nora.
Then at the brass chain around his wrist.
Nora understood.
The tide clock.
“That’s why you stole it,” she said.
Julian went still.
Everyone stared at her.
“Eleanor’s message told me to remember the tide clock.”