Chapter 6 - Northstar
Detective Vance traced the unknown call to a disposable phone near South Station.
Security footage showed a woman in a hooded coat using it, but her face remained hidden.
Liam believed the caller was Sophia.
Vance was not convinced.
“It could be someone helping her,” she said.
“Or someone helping Ethan frighten us.”
The financial investigation moved faster than expected.
Northstar Development existed only on paper.
Its registered address belonged to a closed warehouse in Delaware. Its directors were nominees connected to dozens of inactive companies.
The two million dollars from the Bennett Foundation had been transferred again within forty-eight hours.
Part went to an account in the Cayman Islands.
Part went to a private medical consulting company.
The consulting company belonged to Dr. Adrian Vale, a psychiatrist who had treated Sophia.
Liam obtained the appointment records through legal channels.
Sophia had attended six sessions.
Each note described her as anxious, paranoid, emotionally unstable, and potentially delusional.
Ethan had attended every appointment.
“He shouldn’t have been allowed in the room,” Liam said.
Rachel read the reports.
“Sophia specifically states that her husband has never harmed her.”
“She was forced.”
“Can we prove that?”
Liam looked at a medication list.
Vale had prescribed a sedative and an antipsychotic.
The dosages were unusually high for the symptoms described.
One medication could cause confusion, memory loss, and fainting.
“Ethan wasn’t only discrediting her,” Liam said. “He was drugging her.”
Vance interviewed Dr. Vale.
He claimed Sophia had requested Ethan’s presence because she was afraid of being alone.
He said the medication was clinically justified.
He denied receiving illegal payments.
Then Vance showed him the Northstar transfer.
Vale requested an attorney.
That evening, Liam received a text message from Sophia’s disconnected number.
Stop searching or Rachel dies.
Attached was a photograph of Rachel entering her office that morning.
Liam called her immediately.
“Do not go home.”
“What happened?”
“He’s watching you.”
Rachel came to the hospital, where Liam arranged for security to escort her into a private staff room.
Detective Vance joined them.
“He wants you frightened,” she said. “That means the investigation is getting close.”
“To what?” Rachel asked.
Vance placed a map on the table.
“Northstar purchased three properties in Massachusetts. Two are empty commercial buildings. The third is an isolated house near Lake Ashford.”
Liam stood.
“We’re going there.”
“The warrant is being prepared.”
“He could move her.”
“And if we enter illegally, we could compromise the case.”
Liam grabbed his coat.
Vance blocked the door.
“Dr. Bennett, listen to me. Ethan wants you reckless. He wants you to make mistakes.”
“My sister is missing.”
“I know.”
“You don’t know what he does when she disobeys.”
Vance held his gaze.
“I know more than you think.”
She rolled back her sleeve.
A thin scar crossed her forearm.
“My former husband put me in the hospital twice. The first time, I protected him. The second time, I thought I had enough evidence. I didn’t.”
Liam looked at the scar.
Vance lowered her sleeve.
“I survived because one detective refused to rush and lose the case.”
The warrant was approved just after midnight.
Police surrounded the Lake Ashford property before dawn.
The house appeared dark.
Officers entered through the front and rear doors simultaneously.
Liam waited outside with Vance.
After several minutes, an officer emerged.
“No occupants.”
Inside, they found signs that someone had recently stayed there.
A cup of tea remained warm.
A blue sweater belonging to Sophia lay across a chair.
Blood marked the bathroom sink.
A length of rope rested near the bed.
On the wall above it, someone had written a message.
LIAM CANNOT SAVE YOU.
Liam stared at the words.
Vance examined the floor.
“Two sets of footprints. One large. One smaller.”
“Were they here tonight?”
“Probably within the last hour.”
Ethan had known about the warrant.
Someone inside the investigation had warned him.
Police searched the property.
In the basement, an officer discovered a locked cabinet.
Inside were copies of Bennett Foundation financial records, several forged signatures, and medical documents bearing Sophia’s name.
They also found photographs of Liam leaving the hospital, Rachel at her apartment, and Detective Vance entering the precinct.
Ethan had been watching all of them.
Taped to the back of the cabinet was a small brass key.
Liam recognized it immediately.
The second key.
He removed it carefully.
A label was attached.
St. Matthew’s Hospital, Room 614.
Liam looked at Vance.
“That room doesn’t exist.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve worked there for eight years.”
Vance turned the key over.
“Maybe it isn’t a patient room.”
Liam remembered the hospital’s oldest wing.
Before renovation, the sixth floor had contained administrative offices and a records archive.
Room 614 had been sealed after a fire twelve years earlier.
The next morning, Liam used the key.
It opened the door.
Inside the abandoned room stood a single metal filing cabinet.
On top of it lay a recent photograph of Sophia.
She was sitting in a chair beside a newspaper dated that morning.
May you like
Across the bottom, Ethan had written four words.
You opened the wrong cage.
