Chapter 5
I did not tell Lily about the note.
She already watched every doorway.
She did not need another reason to fear sleep.
Detective Alvarez arranged for two officers to remain inside her room and four outside the hospital.
Then she looked directly at me.
“You are not going to that facility alone.”
“They photographed my daughter inside a guarded hospital.”
“That means someone has access. It does not mean you obey them.”
“They want both keys.”
“Do you have both?”
I showed her the brass key.
I kept the iron key hidden beneath my shirt.
“No.”
Alvarez did not believe me.
But she did not search me.
“We’ll use the coordinates to set surveillance,” she said.
“If they see police, Lily becomes the target.”
“They have already made her the target.”
That was true.
It was also why waiting felt impossible.
Rebecca called while Alvarez was speaking with hospital security.
Her number appeared for the first time.
I answered.
“Where are you?”
“Watching Michael.”
“He fired at us.”
“I know.”
“You know because you helped him?”
“No.”
“Then why are you still hiding?”
“Because Robert will kill me before I testify.”
“You chased Lily.”
“I panicked.”
“She fell.”
“I caught her arm because she was running toward the stairs.”
“You threatened her.”
“I told her terrible things.”
Rebecca’s voice broke.
“I wanted the key more than I protected her.”
“That is not love.”
“I know.”
For once, she did not argue.
“Did you send the blue box?”
“No.”
“Did you photograph Lily?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“The person your mother warned you about.”
“Who invited you into my family?”
Rebecca went silent.
“You know the answer.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, Daniel. You do. You just cannot accept it.”
“Say the name.”
“Claire.”
My breath stopped.
“Claire died before we met.”
“Claire contacted me six months before the crash.”
“Why?”
“She knew she was in danger. She asked me to watch you and Lily if anything happened.”
“Lily was an infant.”
“And Claire was pregnant.”
I pressed the phone harder against my ear.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She did.”
“No.”
“She left a recording in the blue box.”
“The box was empty.”
“Then someone removed it.”
“Did you meet Claire the night she died?”
“Yes.”
Erin had said Claire was not alone in the car.
I assumed she meant the unborn baby.
Now I understood.
“You were with her.”
“I got out at the gas station after we argued.”
“About what?”
“She wanted to go back to you.”
“Why wouldn’t she?”
“Because she believed Michael had turned you against her.”
“That makes no sense.”
“She had heard your voice on a recording.”
“What recording?”
“You telling Michael to destroy the patient files.”
“I never said that.”
“I know.”
“You know now?”
“I knew after your mother found the original audio.”
My father had manipulated my voice.
The same kind of trick he used in business negotiations.
Record enough conversations, remove enough words, and a lie could sound natural.
“Claire thought I betrayed her.”
“Yes.”
“So she contacted you.”
“She wanted me to take Lily if she died.”
Anger surged through me.
“You watched us for two years instead.”
“I was trying to learn whether you were involved.”
“Then you approached me at a charity dinner.”
“I planned the meeting.”
“You studied me.”
“Yes.”
“You married me.”
Her breathing became uneven.
“That part was not planned.”
“Did you ever love me?”
“I still do.”
“You grabbed my daughter.”
“I know.”
“You frightened her with lies about me.”
“I know.”
“Then stop saying you love us like it changes what you did.”
Rebecca began crying.
I had heard her cry before.
Sometimes it was real.
Sometimes it was a weapon.
I no longer knew the difference.
“Who sent the package?” I asked.
“Your aunt.”
“My father’s sister?”
“Margaret Carter.”
Aunt Margaret lived in Maine.
She had been distant from our family since I was a child.
“She barely knows Lily.”
“She knows more about your father’s crimes than anyone.”
“Why would she threaten Lily?”
“Because the evidence inside Claire’s coffin does not only destroy Robert.”
“Who else?”
“Margaret’s son.”
My cousin Andrew had died from an overdose fifteen years earlier.
At least, that was what we had been told.
“He worked at the research facility,” Rebecca continued. “He helped Michael change the trial records.”
“Then why would Margaret expose the family?”
“She doesn’t want to expose it. She wants the keys so she can destroy everything.”
“Where is she?”
“She is already at the facility.”
“How do you know?”
“I followed her.”
“Are you there?”
Rebecca ended the call.
I told Alvarez everything except the iron key.
She sent units toward the facility.
I asked Hannah to stay with Lily.
Then I crouched beside my daughter’s bed.
“I need to leave for a little while.”
Her hand closed around mine.
“No.”
“The police will stay.”
“They were here last night.”
The photograph had destroyed the little trust we rebuilt.
I sat beside her.
“Then I won’t go.”
“But you have to find Grandma’s secret.”
“Nothing matters more than you.”
Lily stared at me for several seconds.
Then she reached beneath her pillow.
She pulled out a small memory card.
I recognized it immediately.
It came from my mother’s old video camera.
“Where did you get that?”
“From the blue box.”
“The box was empty.”
“Not before.”
“You opened it last week?”
She nodded.
“I hid this when Rebecca came.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Grandma said not to trust anyone who asked about the box.”
“Even me?”
“She said I had to wait until you believed me.”
The words hurt.
Before the fall, would I have believed her?
I wanted to say yes.
I could not.
Lily gave me the card.
“Grandma said the password is Mommy’s birthday.”
Claire’s birthday.
Not Rebecca’s.
I inserted the card into my laptop.
A video appeared.
My mother sat inside the hidden room.
She looked pale.
Thinner than I remembered.
“Daniel,” she began, “if Lily gives you this, something has gone terribly wrong.”
Lily moved closer to the screen.
My mother continued.
“Rachel Mercer is dangerous when she is afraid, but she did not cause Claire’s crash.”
Rebecca had told the truth about that.
“Robert ordered Michael to recover Claire’s evidence. Margaret helped them because her son had falsified the medical data before his death.”
My aunt.
My father.
My brother.
Three branches of the family protecting the same crime.
“But there is another truth,” my mother said. “Claire discovered that the experimental treatment did not cause the patients’ injuries.”
I frowned.
Every new answer opened another lie.
“The patients were harmed by a contaminant deliberately added after the trial.”
Lily did not understand.
I barely did.
“Someone sabotaged Carter Biomedical,” my mother continued. “Robert concealed it because admitting the truth would reveal illegal testing. Michael concealed it because he believed Claire was the saboteur.”
My mother leaned closer to the camera.
“She was not.”
The video shook.
A door closed somewhere behind her.
My mother looked frightened.
“The person who contaminated the medicine was Rachel Mercer.”
I stared at the screen.
Rebecca.
My wife had caused the disaster she claimed to investigate.
“She wanted revenge for what Robert did to her mother,” Evelyn said. “Claire learned the truth. That is why Rachel entered the car that night.”
The video ended.
Lily whispered, “Is Rebecca bad?”
I closed the laptop.
“Rebecca made terrible choices.”
“Did she make people sick?”
“I don’t know yet.”
My phone rang.
Rebecca again.
This time, she was screaming.
“Daniel, don’t come here!”
A loud crash sounded behind her.
Then Michael’s voice came through the phone.
“You should have listened to your wife.”
“Where is Rebecca?”
“With me.”
“If you hurt her—”
“You still care. That is almost sweet.”
“What do you want?”
“The keys and the memory card.”
He knew about the card.
Someone had watched Lily hide it.
“Who took the hospital photograph?”
“Margaret.”
“Why are you working with her?”
“I’m not.”
A gunshot sounded.
Rebecca screamed again.
Michael swore.
The call disconnected.
Alvarez entered the room.
“Officers reached the research facility.”
“And?”
“The building is on fire.”
I looked at Lily.
She held the laptop against her chest.
The memory card inside it carried my mother’s accusation against Rebecca.
If the video was true, Rebecca was not only a stalker.
She had poisoned experimental medicine.
But she was also trapped inside a burning building with my brother.
Lily reached for me.
“Daddy, go.”
“I said I would stay.”
“Grandma said you always try to save people.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Even when they don’t deserve it.”
I kissed her forehead.
Then I gave the memory card to Alvarez.
“Do not let anyone take this.”
We drove toward Worcester.
Smoke was visible five miles from the facility.
When we arrived, firefighters were still moving equipment into position.
The eastern entrance had collapsed.
Police found Margaret’s car in the woods.
Michael’s SUV stood near the loading dock.
Rebecca’s coat lay beside it.
Then a firefighter shouted from the rear of the building.
A woman crawled through a broken window.
It was Rebecca.
Her hands were tied.
Her face was streaked with soot.
She collapsed on the wet grass.
I ran toward her.
She looked up at me.
“Michael has the iron key.”
My hand moved instinctively toward my chest.
The key was still beneath my shirt.
Rebecca stared at it.
Then she whispered, “He has a copy.”
An explosion shook the building.
Flames burst through the roof.
Rebecca grabbed my sleeve.
“Claire’s evidence isn’t in the coffin.”
“Then what does the key open?”
“The grave belongs to someone else.”
“Who?”
May you like
She looked toward the burning facility.
“Your mother.”
