Chapter 8 - the red book)
David did not remember crossing the hallway.
One moment he was inside Claire's room.
The next he was demanding that someone explain how his daughter could disappear from a guarded medical facility.
Rachel met him near the elevator.
Her face was white.
"I turned around for maybe ten seconds."
"Where?"
"The family waiting room. She said she wanted water."
"Was an officer there?"
"Outside the hall."
Ruiz arrived.
"Security cameras?"
"Pulling them now."
David's heart hammered.
"Laura is in custody."
"Mark isn't," Ruiz said.
Neither was Dr. Reed.
The hospital locked down the building.
Four minutes later, security found Lily.
She had not been kidnapped.
She was sitting inside a linen closet two floors below.
Holding her backpack.
David nearly collapsed when he saw her.
He dropped to his knees.
"What were you doing?"
Lily looked terrified.
"I had to hide."
"From who?"
"The man."
Ruiz crouched beside them.
"What man?"
"The man from the lake house."
"Mark?"
Lily shook her head.
"The doctor."
Simon Reed.
Security footage confirmed it.
A gray-haired man wearing hospital scrubs had entered through a staff corridor using a stolen badge.
He walked past the waiting room.
Lily saw him.
She ran.
Reed followed for thirty seconds, then disappeared down a stairwell when security alarms activated.
Police searched the building.
He escaped through a loading dock.
David held Lily close.
"Why did you bring your backpack?"
She looked at him.
"Because of the red book."
Ruiz became very still.
"What red book?"
Lily unzipped the lining inside the backpack.
Not a pocket.
The lining itself.
A section had been hand-sewn near the bottom.
Lily pulled at the thread.
Inside was a small red notebook.
Claire covered her mouth.
David stared.
"Where did you get that?"
Lily looked at her mother.
"You gave it to me."
Claire shook her head.
"I don't remember."
"It was before you died."
Claire closed her eyes.
"Before the crash," Lily corrected herself.
The distinction seemed to hurt and heal at the same time.
Lily opened the notebook.
Most pages contained numbers.
Company names.
Dates.
Initials.
Bank accounts.
Near the back were handwritten notes.
Laura M.
Mark V.
Simon R.
Merritt.
Havenridge.
Room 17.
Claire took the notebook.
Her hands trembled.
"I remember this."
Ruiz leaned closer.
"What is it?"
"The transactions."
The red book was Claire's personal audit ledger.
She had documented money Laura and Mark allegedly diverted from family trusts into shell companies.
Simon Reed's name appeared beside several payments.
But the final pages contained something far more disturbing.
Claire had written:
If Laura knows I copied the guardianship forms, I am in danger.
David frowned.
"Guardianship forms?"
Claire turned the page.
Blank.
The next had been torn out.
She whispered, "I found documents in Mark's office."
"What documents?" Ruiz asked.
"Draft guardianship papers with my name on them."
"Before your accident?"
Claire nodded.
"They were dated for the future."
The room went silent.
Laura had prepared paperwork to declare Claire incapacitated before Claire ever crashed.
The accident had not created the plan.
The plan already existed.
Claire turned another page.
There was one final note.
MARK SAYS L KNOWS ABOUT D'S INSURANCE. ASK EVELYN.
Ruiz frowned.
"Who is Evelyn?"
Claire's eyes widened.
"Evelyn Ross."
"Who is she?"
"My accountant."
David remembered the name vaguely.
Claire had worked with an outside forensic accountant during the final year of her father's estate settlement.
"Where is she?"
Claire shook her head.
"I don't know."
Ruiz searched.
Evelyn Ross still lived in the city.
She had no criminal record.
Her firm had closed seventeen months earlier.
The timing matched Claire's crash almost exactly.
Ruiz called.
No answer.
They sent officers to Evelyn's address.
The apartment was empty.
Neighbors said she had moved months earlier.
No forwarding address.
David looked at the red notebook.
"Laura knew Lily had this?"
Lily nodded.
"I think so."
"How?"
"She kept asking what Mom gave me before the accident."
"Why didn't you show it to me?"
Lily's eyes filled.
"Because Mom told me something."
Claire leaned closer.
"What did I tell you?"
Lily looked at her.
"If something bad happened and Aunt Laura started living with us, don't give Daddy the red book until he stops believing her."
David felt the words like a blow.
Claire began crying.
"I said that to you?"
Lily nodded.
"I didn't understand."
David looked away.
Claire reached across the bed.
She touched his hand for the first time.
"She was trying to protect the evidence."
"I should have protected her."
"David."
"I married the person she was afraid of."
"You thought I was dead."
"I stopped listening to Lily."
Claire did not deny it.
Instead she squeezed his fingers.
"Then listen now."
Lily looked between them.
"There's more in the book."
She flipped to the inside back cover.
A small photograph had been taped there.
It showed Claire, Evelyn Ross, and another woman standing outside a bank.
On the reverse was an address.
Ruiz recognized it.
A private safe-deposit facility downtown.
Under the address, Claire had written:
BOX 417.
KEY WITH EVELYN.
David stared at the number.
"Another key?"
Claire nodded slowly.
"Whatever is in that box..."
She looked toward the red notebook.
"...is what Laura was really afraid of."
The police located Evelyn Ross six hours later.
She was living under her middle name in a town two states away.
When Ruiz finally reached her by phone and mentioned Claire, Evelyn began crying.
May you like
Then she said something no one expected.
"I've been waiting eighteen months for David Mercer to call me."
