Chapter 8 - the woman in the security footage)
Caleb's statement destroyed the story Nathan had lived with for eighteen months.
Anna had not simply driven home and lost control.
She had been running.
According to Caleb, she possessed documents connecting Harrison Vale to a secret medical research network funded through charitable organizations.
Project June.
Nathan still did not understand what the research involved.
But he understood fear.
Anna had been afraid enough to prepare evidence inside a hotel wall.
Afraid enough to ask a man following her for help disappearing.
"Did you help her?" Nathan asked during the formal interview.
Caleb shook his head.
"I was working for Harrison."
"So you betrayed her."
"I didn't tell Harrison about the call."
"Why?"
Caleb stared through the interview room glass.
"Because I had a daughter."
Nathan's anger paused.
"Had?"
"She died."
"I'm sorry."
"No, you're not."
Caleb's expression hardened.
"But Anna was. She knew about her."
"What happened?"
"Medical trial."
Nathan's stomach tightened.
"Project June?"
Caleb did not answer.
That was answer enough.
"Your daughter was part of it."
"Without my knowledge."
Nathan looked toward Bennett.
The detective's face had gone still.
Caleb continued.
"My ex wife signed paperwork. They told us it was an experimental therapy. They said it was safe."
"What happened?"
"She got sick."
Nathan did not ask for details.
Caleb looked down at his hands.
"When I discovered Harrison's foundation was involved, I kept working for him."
Nathan stared in disbelief.
"Why?"
"Because I wanted proof."
"You could have gone to police."
"With what? A rich man's name and a dead child?"
Nathan looked away.
"Anna had proof."
"Yes."
"So you helped her?"
"Eventually."
"What happened that night?"
Caleb took a long breath.
"I followed her from Arden House. She called. Said she knew who I was. Said she knew about my daughter."
"How?"
"Anna knew everything."
A faint, painful smile appeared.
"That's what made her dangerous."
Nathan remembered her intelligence, her habit of asking one question too many.
"What did she ask you to do?"
"Turn off a traffic camera on Route 18."
"Why?"
"She wanted ninety seconds without surveillance."
"Did you?"
Caleb nodded.
"I did."
"What happened during those ninety seconds?"
"I don't know."
Nathan's patience broke.
"You were following her."
"I told you, I lost her."
"Where?"
"Near the service road before the bridge."
"Then you saw the explosion."
"Yes."
"And assumed she died?"
"I assumed Harrison got there first."
Nathan stared.
"But you never saw a body."
"No."
The same thought entered the room simultaneously.
Bennett voiced it.
"Is it possible Anna Cole survived?"
Caleb looked at Nathan.
"I don't know."
Nathan's pulse thundered.
He hated hope.
Hope after grief felt dangerous.
"But the police had evidence."
"Her purse," Caleb said.
"Her jewelry."
"Objects."
Nathan stood.
"The medical examiner."
"No body was conclusively identified."
Nathan knew that.
He had always known it.
The fire destroyed almost everything.
The coroner relied on circumstance and recovered personal effects.
Nathan walked outside the interview room.
He needed air.
Bennett followed.
"Don't do this to yourself yet."
"Do what?"
"Decide she's alive because there's no proof she isn't."
Nathan looked at her.
"There's also no proof she died."
"Correct."
That was enough.
Marcus called twenty minutes later.
"I found something."
Nathan went to Vale Holdings headquarters.
Marcus had accessed archived security footage from Arden House.
Most recordings were lost.
One backup drive survived.
April seventeenth.
Nathan watched Anna enter the hotel.
His knees nearly failed.
There she was.
Alive.
Moving.
Wearing the gray coat he remembered.
She walked through the lobby carrying Lily.
Three year old Lily.
Nathan gripped the table.
"She really took her there."
Marcus nodded.
The footage continued.
Anna met Harrison Vale.
Caleb stood behind him.
Then a fourth person entered.
A woman.
Her face remained turned from the camera.
Nathan leaned closer.
"Who is that?"
Marcus froze the image.
The woman wore a white coat.
A medical badge hung from her neck.
Marcus enlarged the frame.
The image pixelated.
One word remained readable.
Brighton.
The research center named in Lily's records.
Nathan's phone rang.
Bennett.
"We confirmed the signature."
Nathan answered without taking his eyes off the screen.
"And?"
"The consent form was forged."
"By whom?"
"We don't know."
"Anything else?"
"Yes."
She hesitated.
"We found security footage from Brighton Pediatric Research Center."
Nathan closed his eyes.
"When?"
"Six months after Anna's death."
His eyes opened.
Bennett continued.
"A woman entered the building using a private staff entrance."
Nathan could barely speak.
"Who?"
"We need you to confirm."
The footage arrived on Marcus's screen minutes later.
A woman wearing a dark coat crossed a parking garage.
Her face turned toward the camera for less than one second.
Nathan stopped breathing.
Marcus whispered, "Oh my God."
Nathan moved closer to the screen.
Older.
Thinner.
Hair shorter.
But Nathan knew her face.
Anna.
May you like
Alive.
Six months after her funeral.
