Chapter 5
Detective Mara Voss interviewed the banquet guests.
Most were afraid.
Not of Mara.
Of what speaking against Clarice or Dominic might mean.
Still, some talked.
A bartender saw Clarice arguing with Agnes near the staircase.
A niece heard Clarice say:
“Sign the consent or be replaced.”
A cousin heard Agnes answer:
“You can’t buy a throne with dirty money.”
A security camera captured part of the shove.
Not perfect.
Enough.
Clarice’s claim that Agnes merely stumbled began to collapse.
Then Mara reviewed Dominic’s slap.
The camera showed him catching Agnes, settling her on the stairs, then walking back up.
Clarice was standing still.
Angry.
But not physically attacking anyone at that moment.
Dominic struck her hard.
His attorney argued emotional shock.
The prosecutor considered misdemeanor assault.
Dominic did not argue with the facts.
He said:
“I hit her.”
His lawyer nearly exploded.
Dominic added:
“She pushed my mother. I still hit her after my mother was safe.”
That honesty surprised Mara.
It did not erase the conduct.
It did make the later resolution more practical.
Meanwhile, Clarice tried to regain control of the family table.
She called an emergency meeting without Agnes.
The agenda:
Temporary suspension of Agnes’s chair due to “medical uncertainty and dangerous instability following staircase incident.”
Dangerous instability.
After Clarice pushed her.
Dominic attended.
So did Mara’s subpoena, delivered through a uniformed officer at the mansion gate.
Clarice’s face went still as the family table received preservation orders for:
Council minutes.
Bellwether communications.
Trust documents.
Medical correspondence regarding Agnes.
Warehouse sale records.
Related-party fee disclosures.
Clarice realized the table had become evidence.
May you like
That was the third clue.
Her threat—“your mother’s secret dies with me”—was less about an embarrassing confession and more about documents she believed only she understood how to use.
