Façade

Chapter 30

Garcia's hand grazed the wall as she and Nolan made their way towards room eighty-eight. There were a million thoughts buzzing through her mind, breaking the law, this new beguling guy, who she barely knew, and the whereabouts of the Hamptons' most high-profile couple being the most prominent amongst them. All that she was focused on at that point, however, was how would they be entering the hotel room? After a failed attempt to procure a master key card from a maid's cart, Nolan relented, and began to forge a note. It read:

To whom it may concern,

My husband and I, being otherwise engaged, give full permission to Mr. Ross to enter our room. We will return presently, and in the meantime, it would be greatly apprieciated if Mr. Ross would be provided with a key card.

Thanking you, Mrs. Emily Grayson.

The note seemed to suffice for the woman behind the check-in desk, who offered the key-card without any hassle. Nolan and Garcia returned to the room, and Nolan turned to her "No going back from here, okay?" "No going back." She was right. Oh, she was right.

"Grayson?" a guard called from outside of the heavy, metal door of her cell. Just as Victoria began to wonder what on earth could have possibly brought an officer to her cell, it hit her. "Mason Treadwell" she gwoled under her breath. The guard grunted "Visitor." A small entryway in the door was opened, and Victoria submitted by offering the guard her wrists, which were promptly cuffed as she once again retreated into her cell, to allow the door to open. She knelt on the threshold, and the guard restrained her ankles too. She stood, and blinking in the harsh light of the corridoor, which was far brighter than her cell, was led out.

The chains emitted a satisfying clink as she was escorted once again to the visitor's room. Mason Treadwell bore a conspicuous smirk as he awaited her arrival. He had brought with him a video camera, a tape recorder, and a pen and paper, much the same as he had done with David Clarke, to obtain 'his side' of the tale that had been woven by the Graysons' hands. "You'e got to be kidding me" said Victoria with a roll of her eyes. It brought to her a memory of watching Mason's interview with Fred Charles, with Conrad after David had been arrested, just prior to his trial.

Flashback; "We're despicable. I can't believe I went along with this" Victoria announced as she watched the interview with Conrad. "Really?" replied Conrad "Beacause I'm finding it difficult to etertain the notion that you'd be alright serving prison time for obstruction of justice, and leaving our children parentless." Victoria, hearing his words, quietened down, and continued to watch, all the while feeling an insurmountable amount of guilt for her sins.

Guilt, as they say, compels people to remarkable places. In Victoria's case, it urged her to write David that infernal note. Fear however, allowed her to leave it unsigned. She was living in fear that he'd put two and two together and reaise that her second child was his.

She couldn't imagine having to do something as humiliating as David had done with Mason. To be asked in all seriousness for your side of the story, only to have it ripped apart by bottom-feeders like Fred Charles and Mason Treadwell. She held her head in her hand, and, not being able to take any more. Stalked off to bed with a heavy heart and a head of guilt.

Present; "So you're in here for ordering the murder of your own daughter-in-law? While she was, let me check, four and a half months pregnant with your first grand child. Pretty sick, don't you think? Because I do" Mason had decided to engage in a little game of 'poke the bear' only in this case, the bear was an imprisoned socialite. "I have been accused and convicted, yes, however, whether or not I'm guilty, that's a whole other matter" she replied, avoiding the question. "It seems to me, that you were trying to exclude Emily from the proverbial equation, so you could have your son all to yourself again, being that he was the only child you had left at the time" Victoria deduced that Mason wasn't going to waste what little time he had beating around the bush, with meaningless fluff questions.

"It would be easier, Victoria, for you, to come clean now, because I'm not giving up until I get the story. I'm not giving up until I get justice for David Clarke, and now, it would seem, for Emily, Daniel, and their child" he prodded the table with his index finger, in an effort to illustrate his determination. He promptly gathered his things into a duffel bag, and exited with a nod. "I'll be seeing you. You make sure of that."

Victoria was in. And way too deep.

© Sarah Egan 2013 - 2014 This story is subject to copyright and may not be copied or reproduced without the express permission of the author.