Chapter 11 - THE POLICEMAN AND THE PATIENT LIST
Marcus Dale surrendered.
He claimed he had not kidnapped Anna.
Anna insisted he had.
The truth arrived somewhere between.
Dale’s mother had participated in Carter Biomedical’s early trials while pregnant.
She later gave birth to a son with neurological complications.
Marcus.
For years she believed the company had caused it.
When she tried to sue, records disappeared.
Her attorney withdrew.
Her marriage collapsed.
Then she died.
Marcus became a police officer partly because he wanted access.
He spent fifteen years quietly investigating Carter Biomedical.
That obsession eventually led him to Anna.
He had been tracking Vivian.
When he discovered Anna investigating the same records, he approached her.
Anna did not trust him.
Then someone else abducted her.
Marcus followed.
He found her at the clinic but was attacked before he could free her.
“Why did she recognize you as the kidnapper?” Morales asked.
They interviewed him from a hospital bed under guard.
Marcus closed his eyes.
“Because I grabbed her in the parking garage.”
Anna, sitting in the next room beside Emma, confirmed it.
“He came up behind me.”
“I was trying to get her away from the security cameras,” Marcus said.
“You used a hood.”
“I panicked.”
“You zip-tied her hands.”
“Because she fought me.”
Morales stared at him.
“That’s kidnapping.”
“I know how it looks.”
“It looks like kidnapping because it is kidnapping.”
Marcus sighed.
“I was trying to save her.”
Emma listened through the audio feed.
Anna leaned against the pillow.
“You believe him?”
Emma asked.
“No.”
“Neither do I.”
Anna looked at her.
For a moment they simply stared.
Two strangers with the same mother.
Emma wanted to ask a thousand questions.
What was your childhood like?
Did you like school?
What foods do you hate?
Do you also sneeze in bright sunlight?
Did our mother ever hold you after they took us apart?
Instead she asked, “Are you hungry?”
Anna almost smiled.
“Starving.”
Emma laughed.
It felt strange and wonderful.
Caleb brought sandwiches.
Anna devoured half of one before Morales entered.
“We found something.”
The sisters looked at her.
“Marcus had a flash drive.”
“Evidence?” Emma asked.
“Patient records.”
Anna stopped eating.
“The children.”
Morales nodded.
“There were thirty-eight pregnancies in the original trial.”
Emma swallowed.
“What happened to them?”
“Eleven resulted in stillbirths. Nine children died before age five. Seven developed serious neurological disorders.”
“And the rest?”
Morales looked at Anna.
“Eleven survived without documented major complications.”
Anna whispered, “Us.”
Morales nodded.
“Your mother was part of the trial.”
Emma stared.
“While pregnant with us?”
“Yes.”
“Did she know?”
“Not initially.”
Anna closed her eyes.
“She found out later.”
Morales continued.
“The trial involved an experimental prenatal diagnostic compound.”
Caleb frowned.
“You inject pregnant women to test diagnostics?”
“Officially, no. The company claimed the compound was only a tracing agent.”
“Unofficially?”
Morales’s expression was grim.
“It may have altered fetal development.”
Emma thought of thirty-eight families.
Thirty-eight mothers.
Children who died.
Children who lived with lifelong conditions.
“And they covered it up.”
“Yes.”
Anna whispered, “Our mother found the list.”
Morales looked at her.
“What else do you know?”
Anna hesitated.
“I found letters Margaret kept.”
“From Laura?”
“Yes.”
Emma’s breath caught.
“Where are they?”
“Hidden in my apartment.”
“Police searched it.”
“They wouldn’t find them.”
Anna looked at Emma.
“There’s a loose brick behind the bedroom radiator.”
Morales made a call immediately.
Two hours later, officers recovered twelve letters.
All from Laura.
None had been mailed.
Margaret had kept them.
The first began:
My daughters,
If you ever read this together, then I failed to protect you separately.
Emma stopped.
Anna reached for her hand.
They read.
Laura described the trial.
Vivian’s threats.
Richard’s fear.
Peter’s financial crimes.
But one name appeared repeatedly.
Not Carter.
Not Lawson.
Dr. Samuel Vale.
Chief Scientific Officer.
The architect of the trial.
Laura wrote:
Vivian is dangerous because she obeys him.
Peter is dangerous because he profits from him.
Richard is weak because he fears him.
But Samuel Vale is the one who decided my daughters were more valuable as leverage than as children.
Emma looked at Morales.
“Where is Samuel Vale?”
Morales typed the name.
Then stopped.
“What?”
She turned the screen.
Samuel Vale had died twelve years earlier.
Private plane crash.
No survivors.
Anna shook her head.
“No.”
May you like
“How do you know?”
“Because the man who questioned me at the clinic called himself Vale.”
