Chapter 10 - CLARA SEARCHES THE CONSERVATORYClara carried Snow into the conservatory after midnight.
Police allowed her inside after photographing the room.
I joined her.
Moonlight passed through the glass ceiling.
White orchids lined the stone floor.
Snow’s brass perch stood near the open terrace doors.
The bird climbed onto it and shook his feathers.
“You heard them here,” Clara whispered.
Snow rang a small bell.
Then he repeated the three-note ringtone.
Clara searched beneath the perch.
Seeds.
A white feather.
A torn piece of paper.
She picked up the paper by its edge.
It contained part of my medication schedule.
MORNING — WHITE TABLET
EVENING — HALF BLUE—
The rest had been torn away.
My real medication schedule was kept in the locked cabinet beside my bedroom.
Only my nurse, physician, and immediate family could access it.
Dr. Hale knew what I took.
Nathaniel knew the approximate times.
Someone had studied how to introduce another substance without immediately attracting attention.
We did not discuss technical details.
Detectives did not need to teach a future criminal how the plan was intended to work.
The important fact was intention.
Clara looked through the glass toward the garden.
“I should have noticed.”
“Noticed what?”
“Nathaniel was here every day this week.”
“You believed he came to visit me.”
“He brought Snow treats.”
The bird often repeated phrases associated with people who rewarded him.
Nathaniel may have approached Snow deliberately.
Perhaps he tried teaching the bird harmless words to cover anything accidental.
“Happy birthday, Grandmother,” Snow said.
Then:
“Drink it all.”
Clara’s face tightened.
“Was he training Snow?”
“Possibly.”
“Then why let the bird hear the threat?”
“Arrogance.”
People who consider others beneath them often underestimate animals too.
Snow reached toward the torn paper.
Clara stopped him.
Police bagged it.
A handwriting specialist later connected the notes to Dr. Hale.
The terrace camera should have recorded every visit.
When security reviewed the footage, an entire ten-minute section was missing.
Not deleted.
The camera had been physically redirected toward the garden wall.
The movement occurred at 4:12 that afternoon.
At 4:22, it returned to its proper angle.
The control system recorded which access code had been used.
Nathaniel’s.
Clara checked the other cameras.
One covered the hallway outside the conservatory.
It showed Nathaniel entering at 4:10.
He carried the blue bottle.
At 4:23, he left without it.
The evidence was becoming overwhelming.
Then Snow said something new.
“Clara gets nothing.”
My granddaughter went still.
May you like
The parrot changed to Rebecca’s voice.
“That wasn’t the agreement.”
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