Chapter 6
Annabell's Game
Annabell Sterling, the grieving widow, plays a careful game. Her flirtatious demeanor and evasiveness raise Miles's suspicions. Her secret affair with Arthur Finch adds a layer of complexity and motive.
The air in the Sterling mansion was thick with the cloying scent of lilies and something else, something metallic and sharp that even the expensive floral arrangements couldn’t entirely mask. Officer Miles, his gaze sweeping over the opulent, yet strangely sterile, living room, felt it prickle at the back of his throat. Annabell Sterling sat on a damask settee, a picture of fragile widowhood, her dark eyes shadowed with what could have been grief, or perhaps something far more calculating.
"Mrs. Sterling," Miles began, his voice a low, steady rumble that cut through the suffocating silence. "I understand this is a difficult time. We just need to ask a few routine questions." He watched her hands, clasped tightly in her lap, her perfectly manicured nails digging into her palms.
Annabell offered a small, tremulous smile. "Of course, Officer. Anything to help find who did this to my Michael." Her voice was a husky whisper, laced with a hint of a tremor that Miles, ever the observer, filed away. It sounded practiced.
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