Chapter 9 - The Dead Man
Claire stared at the photograph until the numbers blurred.
“This is fake.”
Reed examined it.
“Maybe.”
“My father died.”
“I understand.”
“I saw him.”
“At the funeral?”
“No.”
Claire stopped.
She had almost said something she had spent six years refusing to think about.
She had not seen her father after his death.
Daniel had told her the illness had changed William’s appearance severely.
The funeral home recommended a closed casket.
Claire had agreed.
She had been exhausted.
Medicated for anxiety.
Grieving.
Trusting.
Reed noticed her silence.
“You never saw the body.”
Claire sat down.
“No.”
The room tilted.
Reed turned the photograph over.
Writing appeared on the back.
WILLIAM BELL DID NOT DIE OF CANCER.
Claire covered her mouth.
“No.”
Reed placed the photograph inside an evidence bag.
“We verify before believing anything.”
“My father would have contacted me.”
“Unless he couldn’t.”
“Six years?”
Reed didn’t answer.
Claire’s phone rang.
Vanessa.
Claire almost rejected it.
Then answered.
“Claire?”
Vanessa sounded weak.
“Where are you?”
“Hospital.”
“What do you want?”
“To tell you Daniel didn’t plan to kill you.”
Claire’s anger sharpened.
“That’s supposed to comfort me?”
“No. Listen.”
“I watched him drug my glass.”
“It wasn’t supposed to kill you.”
“What was supposed to happen?”
“You were supposed to become confused.”
Claire said nothing.
Vanessa continued.
“You’d sign the transfer. Then Daniel would take you home.”
“And?”
“He wanted people to think you were having episodes.”
Claire looked at Reed.
“Episodes?”
“Memory problems. Paranoia. Confusion.”
The incapacitation clause.
Claire understood.
“You helped him.”
Vanessa started crying.
“I thought it was about the company.”
“You knew he was drugging me.”
“I knew about today.”
“That’s enough.”
“Claire, I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re scared.”
Vanessa went silent.
Claire asked:
“Who is Peter working with?”
A pause.
“I don’t know.”
“Who sent me the messages?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is Rebecca?”
“I don’t—”
Claire heard something in the background.
A door.
Vanessa inhaled sharply.
“Someone’s here.”
“Who?”
Silence.
“Vanessa?”
Then a male voice spoke faintly.
“Put the phone down.”
Claire stood.
“Vanessa!”
The connection ended.
Reed immediately called dispatch.
Police reached Vanessa’s room in four minutes.
It was empty.
Her IV line lay on the floor.
The window was locked.
Hospital cameras showed Vanessa entering an elevator with a man in medical scrubs.
His face was covered by a surgical mask.
May you like
But Claire recognized his eyes.
Dr. Evan Kessler.
