Chapter 10 - Aunt Claire
Claire arrived under another name.
Two federal agents brought her into a secure interview facility forty miles outside the city.
She was sixty-two.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
She walked with a cane.
But the moment Rachel saw her, she recognized the eyes.
Rachel stopped in the doorway.
Claire rose.
Neither woman spoke.
Then Claire whispered:
“Rach.”
Rachel began crying.
Claire covered her mouth.
“I’m sorry.”
Rachel did not hug her.
“Are you my aunt?”
“No.”
“Did you tell me you were?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you needed someone who felt like family.”
Rachel’s expression hardened.
“Did you hurt me?”
Claire’s face collapsed.
“Yes.”
Ethan tensed.
Rachel stood completely still.
“How?”
“I worked for Vale.”
“What did you do?”
“I monitored sessions.”
“Did you hold me down?”
Claire looked at the floor.
“Once.”
Rachel turned away.
Ethan reached for her hand.
Claire cried silently.
“I thought we were helping children.”
“So did my father.”
“Yes.”
“When did you know?”
“Before he did.”
Rachel spun back.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“And you stayed?”
“I was afraid.”
“Children were being drugged.”
“I know.”
“You watched.”
“I know.”
Rachel’s voice rose.
“You let my mother do that to me!”
Claire nodded, tears running down her face.
“Yes.”
Silence.
Then Claire said:
“And I have regretted it every day for twenty-seven years.”
Rachel’s anger did not disappear.
But she sat.
“Why are you here?”
Claire looked at the agents.
“Because Samuel Vale is alive.”
“We know.”
“No.”
Claire’s voice changed.
“You know he survived.”
“What’s the difference?”
“You think Marlene still works for him.”
Ethan leaned forward.
“She doesn’t?”
Claire shook her head.
“Samuel works for Marlene.”
Everyone went quiet.
“Marlene created the program.”
Rachel stared.
Claire explained.
Marlene had studied behavioral psychology but never completed a doctorate.
She was brilliant, obsessive and deeply interested in suggestibility.
Samuel Vale gave her ideas scientific legitimacy.
Thomas provided money.
Claire managed patients.
The others followed.
“Marlene believed memory determined loyalty,” Claire said. “If someone remembered you hurting them, they could leave you. If they doubted the memory, they stayed.”
Rachel looked sick.
“She practiced on me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you saw what happened to your father.”
“What happened?”
Claire looked toward the federal agents.
Then back at Rachel.
“Thomas confronted Marlene in the underground observation room.”
Rachel’s breathing changed.
“He had the black bag.”
“Yes.”
“She hit him.”
“Yes.”
“With what?”
“A steel lamp.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“He fell.”
“Yes.”
“Did she kill him?”
Claire hesitated.
“No.”
Rachel opened her eyes.
“He was alive?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Samuel sedated him.”
“Then?”
“Marlene told everyone Thomas had suffered a cardiac event.”
“Where did they take him?”
Claire’s face became strangely guarded.
“I don’t know.”
Rachel stared.
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
“You are.”
Ethan saw it too.
Claire looked frightened.
Not ashamed.
Frightened.
“Why are you lying?” Rachel demanded.
Claire glanced at the agents.
One of them shifted uncomfortably.
Ethan noticed.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
The older federal agent spoke.
“Certain information is classified.”
Ethan laughed without humor.
“My wife was experimented on as a child and my daughter is under surveillance. You can unclassify it.”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
Rachel looked at Claire.
“Is my father dead?”
Claire began crying again.
“I don’t know.”
“You said Marlene didn’t kill him.”
“She didn’t kill him that night.”
“Where did he go?”
Claire whispered:
“Program 317.”
The brass token.
The bell.
The number.
Alvarez leaned forward.
“What is Program 317?”
Claire’s eyes moved toward Lily, who was in another room with a child specialist.
May you like
Then she looked at Rachel.
“The Whitaker Center wasn’t the only facility.”
