The room quieted.
A veteran detective nodded.
That mattered.
Not agreement from everyone.
Enough.
Four years after the boutique incident, Ava's father asked whether she still owned Bellamy House.
She laughed.
“Why wouldn't I?”
“Too much trouble.”
He sat at her kitchen table eating peach cobbler.
“Sell it.”
“My mother would haunt me.”
“Your mother would sell at the right price.”
Ava smiled.
Probably true.
James continued:
“You go there anymore?”
“Yes.”
“In disguise?”
Ava rolled her eyes.
“I was not in disguise.”
“Bucket hat and sunglasses.”
“Fashion.”
“Disguise.”
They argued.
Then he asked:
“Does it bother you?”
“What?”
“Going back.”
Ava thought.
At first, yes.
The central display counter carried memory.
Metal closing around wrists.
Keller's breath near her ear.
Rachel's terrified face.
Claire running.
The reveal.
The silence.
For months, Ava avoided that floor.
Then one day she realized avoidance had turned part of her mother's legacy into Keller's territory.
She went back.
Bought the black handbag Rachel had shown her.
The one she had been trying on when Keller approached.
She still owned it.
“Not anymore,” she said.
James nodded.
“Good.”
He took another bite.
Then:
“How much was that bag?”
Ava stared.
“None of your business.”
“Your mother would've killed you.”
“She owned the company.”
“So do you.”
“Exactly.”
He shook his head.
“You rich people are strange.”
Ava laughed so hard she almost spilled coffee.
Five years after the incident, Rachel became general manager.
Claire retired.
At the retirement reception, Claire handed Ava a tiny box.
Inside was the first store key Loretta had used decades earlier.
Rusty brass.
No longer opened anything.
Ava stared.
“Where did you get this?”
“Your mother gave it to me when I became assistant manager.”
“That was twenty years ago.”
Claire smiled.
“She said if I ever became too impressed with the marble floors, I should remember the first store had a bathroom door that didn't lock.”
Ava laughed.
Tears came anyway.
Claire touched her hand.
“I'm sorry I didn't catch what was happening sooner.”
Ava knew what she meant.
The profiling.
Halpern.
Informal police calls.
“Me too.”
Claire looked relieved that Ava did not absolve her completely.
They hugged.
Rachel gave a speech.
Evan spoke.
No one mentioned Keller until James Cole did, loudly, while holding champagne.
“This is all very nice, but I'm still mad nobody let me punch that officer.”
Everyone laughed.
Ava covered her face.
“Dad.”
“What?”
Claire whispered:
“Your mother would've encouraged him.”
Probably.
Ava served two terms as District Attorney.
She declined a third.
Reporters speculated about higher office.
She refused.
People assumed governor.
Attorney General.
Federal appointment.
Ava wanted sleep.
She returned to private legal work part-time and became more involved in Bellamy House.
Not daily management.