Chapter 26 - The Trap in the Records Room
Martin refused to explain the payments to Elise.
He claimed they were settlement installments connected to a confidential case.
Elise’s apartment suggested otherwise.
Detective Bennett believed Martin and Elise were working against each other while pretending to cooperate.
A search of Martin’s electronic calendar revealed a meeting scheduled inside the municipal archives.
The event was labeled:
FINAL CORRECTION - SULLIVAN FILE.
Rather than cancel the appointment, investigators allowed it to remain active.
The archives were placed under surveillance.
At 9:40 p.m., a woman entered using an employee access card reported missing two days earlier.
The security camera captured red hair beneath a dark hood.
Leah stared at the image.
“Celia had red hair.”
But Celia Mercer was dead.
The woman moved directly to the section containing Andrew’s reunification-project records. She removed a sealed box and carried it toward an emergency exit.
Officers stopped her before she left.
She was not Elise Rowan.
Her identification named her Dr. Caroline Vale, a retired laboratory director who had signed Leah’s DNA report.
Caroline admitted Martin paid her to create a false match between Leah and Andrew.
“Then she isn’t my sister?” Jake asked.
Caroline shook her head.
“The report was false. That does not mean the relationship is false. Martin never gave me Leah’s real sample.”
“Why fake a result that might already be true?”
“To control when the truth became official.”
The records box contained Andrew’s original client list.
Seventeen families were connected to altered maternity files.
One page had been recently added.
It contained Grace’s name and medical-record number.
Caroline claimed she did not add it.
Detective Bennett showed her Elise Rowan’s photograph.
Caroline went pale.
“That isn’t Elise.”
“You know her?”
“That woman called herself Evelyn Shaw when she worked with Claudia Voss.”
“What did she do?”
May you like
Caroline looked toward Grace’s information.
“She selected the families.”
