The silence that fell over the room was absolute.

It felt as though the very oxygen had been sucked into the vaulted ceiling.

“She instructed that if her husband, Evan Vale, had the unmitigated gall to attend her funeral accompanied by his mistress, Celeste Marrow… I am to play the audio file labeled simply: Church.”

Mr. Halden stepped over to the lectern, plugging the small device into the church’s sophisticated audio-visual system, originally installed to broadcast sermons to the overflow rooms.

“No!” Evan roared, the last threads of his sanity snapping.

He lunged toward the altar, his hands outstretched like claws, desperate to reach the lectern and rip the wires from the wall.

But Detective Miller had already closed the distance.