Chapter 8 - Daniel’s Missing Three Hours)
Daniel stared at Victoria.
“That’s impossible.”
“The bank showed Emily the access record.”
“I never opened any box.”
“Your identification was used.”
“Someone forged it.”
“Maybe.”
Daniel stood.
“You think I had something to do with this?”
Victoria said nothing.
He laughed bitterly.
“My wife was almost killed.”
“So was Richard.”
“And?”
“And Richard trusted people who loved him.”
Daniel looked ready to explode.
Ortiz intervened.
“Sit down.”
He did not.
“Mr. Whitmore.”
Daniel finally sat.
Ortiz asked, “Where were you two days before Emily accessed the box?”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
He searched his phone calendar.
Then stopped.
“I was at Westbridge.”
Ava looked up.
“Why?”
Daniel stared at the screen.
“Routine scan.”
“For what?”
“Migraines.”
Victoria whispered, “Oh God.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
“When did the migraines start?”
“About six months ago.”
“After the foundation gala?”
Daniel froze.
“Yes.”
Victoria covered her mouth.
Ava remembered the photograph of Daniel and Emily at the hospital fundraiser.
Dr. Vale behind them.
Daniel looked increasingly disturbed.
“The night of that gala, Simon gave me something for a headache.”
Ortiz asked, “Injection?”
“Yes.”
“Did you lose time?”
Daniel said nothing.
Ava watched his face.
“Yes,” she said.
He looked at her.
“I woke up in a recovery suite.”
“How long?”
“Three hours.”
The room fell silent.
Ortiz asked, “Did Emily know?”
“No. I told her I fell asleep.”
Victoria looked at Daniel.
“They used you.”
His face tightened.
“For what?”
“To access Richard’s box.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
“They had your identification. Your fingerprints.”
“My fingerprints?”
“The bank used biometric access.”
Daniel stared at his hands.
Ortiz wrote rapidly.
“So someone needed him physically present.”
Ava said, “But maybe not conscious.”
Everyone looked at her.
“If their drug suppresses movement but leaves partial awareness, they could move someone, use his hand, control what he remembers.”
Daniel looked sick.
“I would remember.”
“Would you?”
He closed his eyes.
A fragment surfaced.
A hallway.
Cold air.
A woman’s voice saying, “Keep his head up.”
Then nothing.
Daniel opened his eyes.
“I remember an elevator.”
Ortiz leaned forward.
“What else?”
“A metallic door.”
“The bank?”
“I don’t know.”
“Anyone with you?”
Daniel pressed both hands against his temples.
“Simon.”
Victoria whispered, “And Elias?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Ortiz’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“When?”
She stood.
“We’re coming.”
“What happened?” Ava asked.
Ortiz looked at them.
“Dr. Vale is gone.”
Daniel stared.
“He was under guard.”
“Apparently one officer received an emergency reassignment order.”
“Fake?”
“Yes.”
“The other?”
Ortiz hesitated.
“Unconscious.”
Ava felt cold.
“How?”
“Injection.”
They rushed toward the elevator.
Daniel stopped at Emily’s room.
He could not leave without checking her.
An officer remained outside.
Daniel entered.
Emily was awake.
He told her Dr. Vale had escaped.
She stared at him.
“Then Elias knows I survived.”
“Who is Elias?”
“I don’t know.”
“You found something about him.”
Emily slowly nodded.
“What?”
She looked toward Ava.
“My father left a recording.”
Daniel sat beside her.
“Where?”
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
Emily’s eyes filled with fear.
“Not in the office.”
“Tell me.”
She touched his hand.
“Before the crash, I went to the lake house.”
Victoria had not known that.
Daniel had not known.
Emily continued.
“There’s an old piano in the music room.”
“Yes.”
“Inside the bench.”
Ava said, “The police searched the house.”
“They won’t find it.”
“Why?”
“False bottom.”
Daniel stood.
“What’s on the recording?”
Emily swallowed.
“My father naming the people who drugged him.”
“Vale?”
“Yes.”
“Julian?”
“Yes.”
“Victoria?”
Emily looked away.
Daniel’s voice softened.
“Your mother?”
“She was there.”
“But?”
“I don’t know what she did.”
“And Elias?”
Emily nodded.
“My father said Elias was the reason the research became something else.”
“What else?”
Emily’s eyes met his.
“A business.”
Ava frowned.
“What kind of business?”
Emily whispered, “People paid them to make someone appear dead.”
No one spoke.
“Why?”
“Insurance. Inheritance. Witness disappearances. Kidnappings disguised as deaths. My father found records.”
Daniel looked stunned.
“How many?”
Emily closed her eyes.
“Hundreds.”
Ava thought about closed coffins.
Private cremations.
Families told not to ask questions.
She felt sick.
Emily continued.
“My father copied names.”
“Where?”
“On the recording.”
Daniel kissed her forehead.
“We’ll get it.”
Emily grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because they know.”
“How?”
“Someone called me before the crash.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did they say?”
Emily’s voice trembled.
“They said if I went to the police, they would put Daniel in the next coffin.”
Daniel stared at her.
Emily began crying.
“I thought I could handle it alone.”
“You should have told me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Daniel held her.
Ava turned away.
Then she noticed something through the hospital window.
Across the street, on the roof of a parking structure, sunlight flashed from glass.
Ava stared.
A lens.
May you like
She shouted, “Get down.”
The hospital window exploded.
