Chapter 5 - the woman in the photograph)
The tunnel ended inside an abandoned greenhouse behind the mansion.
Rain hammered the glass roof.
Nia pushed Evan beneath an old workbench.
"We have to get past the garden wall."
Evan shook his head.
"I need to hear the rest."
He held up the recorder.
"There could be more."
"They're looking for us."
"My mother might be alive."
Nia stared at him.
That changed everything.
They crouched behind a row of dead flower pots while Evan pressed play.
Claire's voice returned.
"If Marcus has finally told you the truth, you will want to hate him."
Evan looked toward the mansion.
"He deserves part of that hatred."
Marcus had known.
Every injection.
Every false examination.
Every night Evan had cried because his legs would not move.
"But Marcus is also the reason you survived the first year."
Evan frowned.
The recording continued.
"Richard ordered higher doses than Marcus gave you. Marcus reduced them whenever he could without Richard noticing."
Nia whispered, "He was helping."
"Not enough."
Claire seemed to answer from the recorder.
"Not enough is still not innocent."
Evan swallowed.
His mother had always understood him.
Even from three years away.
The recording crackled again.
"I left copies of the financial records with Naomi Brooks. If Naomi is still alive, trust her."
Nia closed her eyes.
Evan glanced at her.
Claire continued.
"Naomi's granddaughter is named Nia. She was six when I last saw her. She liked strawberry ice cream and hated shoes."
Nia laughed through tears.
Evan looked at her bare feet.
"Still true?"
"Both."
For a moment the fear eased.
Then Claire's voice changed.
"Richard believes the records are all that matter. He is wrong."
Another pause.
"The most important evidence is hidden in Evan's wheelchair."
Evan looked down.
Nia leaned closer.
"What?"
The recording ended.
Evan pressed every button.
Nothing.
"No. No, no, no."
A second audio file appeared.
He pressed play.
Instead of Claire's voice, they heard breathing.
Then a man.
Richard.
"I don't care what the scan says."
Evan froze.
Marcus answered.
"The boy is healthy."
"Then change the scan."
"You can't manufacture a spinal injury."
"People believe reports, Marcus. They believe doctors."
"This is insane."
Richard's voice became colder.
"You have gambling debts. Your license is already under review. I can solve both problems."
Silence.
Then Marcus whispered, "And if I refuse?"
"You'll never practice medicine again."
The file ended.
Nia stared at Evan.
"Your mother recorded them."
"She knew."
A beam of light swept across the greenhouse.
Security.
Nia pulled Evan backward.
They crawled through a broken side door into the rain.
The garden wall stood fifty yards away.
Impossible to reach unnoticed.
Then Nia pointed toward a delivery truck parked near the kitchen entrance.
"That way."
"We'll be seen."
"Do you have a better idea?"
"No."
"Then be rich quietly and follow me."
Evan almost smiled.
They moved behind hedges.
Halfway across the lawn, Evan's wheelchair stopped.
The indicator lights turned red.
"No."
Nia grabbed the back.
"What happened?"
"Battery."
"Can you restart it?"
Evan tried.
Nothing.
Nia began pushing.
The chair weighed nearly three hundred pounds.
Her bare feet slipped in the mud.
"Leave me."
"No."
"Nia."
"No."
"They'll catch both of us."
"Your mother didn't ask me to rescue the recorder."
She pushed harder.
"She asked me to rescue you."
Evan stared at her.
"What do you mean?"
Nia stopped.
Rain streamed down her face.
"My grandmother gave me a message before she disappeared."
"What message?"
Nia reached into her dress and pulled out a plastic wrapped photograph.
Claire stood beside Naomi.
The picture had been taken in the Midnight Room.
Between them was another woman.
Evan did not recognize her.
The woman had red hair and held a newborn baby.
On the back Claire had written:
If anything happens to me, find Eleanor Vale. She knows where the second child is.
Evan read it twice.
"What second child?"
Nia shook her head.
"I don't know."
Behind them, security guards shouted.
Nia grabbed the wheelchair.
They had no time.
As she pushed him toward the delivery truck, Evan kept staring at the photograph.
May you like
His mother's mystery had just become bigger.
And somewhere out there was a child Claire had been willing to risk everything to protect.
