Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO ESCAPED ROSEWOOD
Elias reached his wife before she struck the floor.
“Lillian.”
Her eyes fluttered.
Dark bruises circled both wrists. A plastic medical band identified her as Patient 906.
Naomi locked the study door and checked the hallway.
“How did she get inside?”
“There is a cellar entrance,” Mercer said. “We used it during storms.”
Marianne knelt beside Lillian.
The woman’s skin felt cold.
“Should we call an ambulance?”
“No hospital,” Lillian whispered.
Her voice was barely audible.
“They own the hospitals.”
Mercer lifted her onto the sofa.
“You escaped?”
“A nurse helped me.”
“Which nurse?”
Lillian looked at Naomi.
“Your friend.”
Naomi froze.
“I don’t have a friend at Rosewood.”
“She said her name was Rebecca.”
The room became silent.
Naomi’s sister had been dead for eight years.
“What did she look like?” Naomi asked.
Lillian closed her eyes.
“Dark hair. Green eyes. Scar on her chin.”
Naomi stepped backward.
Rebecca had a small scar on her chin from a childhood bicycle accident.
“That’s impossible.”
Lillian reached into the pocket of her gown and removed a brass key.
“She told me to give this to Marianne Cole.”
Marianne accepted it.
A number was engraved on the head.
417.
The stopped clock at Union Station had shown 4:17.
“What does it open?” she asked.
“Your husband’s room.”
“My husband did not have a room.”
“At Rosewood, he did.”
Marianne looked at Mercer.
The judge’s face revealed that he knew more than he had admitted.
“Tell me.”
Mercer covered Lillian with a blanket.
“Thomas survived the crash.”
The words entered the room without meaning.
Marianne waited for him to correct himself.
He did not.
“No,” she said. “I identified his body.”
“You identified a body with severe facial injuries.”
“I saw his wedding ring.”
“Rings can be moved.”
“I buried him.”
“You buried someone.”
Marianne stood so quickly the desk chair fell backward.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“For eight years?”
“I had no proof until Lillian was admitted to Rosewood. She saw a patient named Thomas in a restricted ward.”
Marianne could not breathe.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Her calls were monitored. When she tried to send a letter, she was medicated and isolated.”
Lillian opened her eyes.
“He remembered you.”
Marianne pressed one hand against her mouth.
“He said your name every night,” Lillian continued. “Marianne. Derek. The lake. He repeated them so he would not forget.”
Naomi sat beside her.
“What about Rebecca?”
Lillian’s gaze drifted toward the ceiling.
“She works below the east wing.”
“My sister is dead.”
“She said the world needed to believe that.”
Naomi looked at Mercer.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“You brought us here knowing your wife had seen Thomas.”
“I was trying to protect her.”
“From whom?”
A vehicle turned onto the gravel road outside.
Headlights swept across the covered windows.
Mercer extinguished the lamp.
A second vehicle followed.
Then a third.
“They found her,” he said.
Naomi helped Lillian stand.
“Cellar.”
They moved through the kitchen.
Marianne remained beside the study door.
“If Thomas is alive, I’m not leaving without answers.”
Mercer grabbed her arm.
“You will get no answers if Pike takes you.”
The first knock sounded.
“Judge Mercer,” a man called. “County medical response. We’re looking for an escaped patient.”
Detective Halpern.
Mercer guided them down the cellar stairs.
The basement contained old tools, shelves of canned food, and a metal door set into the foundation.
Naomi unlocked it with a key from Mercer’s ring.
Outside, the cellar exit opened behind a stone wall.
They crossed the field as voices entered the farmhouse.
Lillian could barely walk.
Marianne and Naomi supported her between them.
Mercer led them toward a barn.
A gunshot cracked behind them.
The barn window shattered.
“Down,” Mercer shouted.
They fell behind a tractor.
Halpern’s voice carried across the field.
“Mrs. Cole, you are not under arrest. We only want to speak with you.”
Marianne looked through the wheel.
Three men moved toward the barn.
Halpern wore a bulletproof vest.
Beside him walked Conrad Pike.
Marianne recognized the hospital administrator from charity events. He had once thanked her publicly for donating to Derek’s treatment fund.
Pike held no weapon.
He did not need one.
“Lillian,” Mercer whispered. “Is there another way out?”
She pointed toward a ladder leading to the hayloft.
They climbed as the barn door opened.
Mercer remained below.
“What are you doing?” Marianne asked.
“Giving you time.”
“Come with us.”
He shook his head.
“I approved the orders that sent people to Rosewood. This is where I begin paying for it.”
Naomi opened a loft door overlooking the rear field. An old irrigation channel ran toward the woods.
Marianne looked back.
Mercer stood alone below.
Halpern entered with his gun raised.
“Where is your wife?”
“Safe.”
“Where is Marianne Cole?”
“Beyond your reach.”
Pike stepped inside.
“No one is beyond my reach, Elias.”
Mercer smiled.
“Thomas Cole was.”
Pike’s expression changed.
That was all the confirmation Marianne needed.
Thomas was alive.
Naomi pulled her through the loft door.
They dropped into the irrigation channel and ran toward the trees.
A second gunshot echoed.
Lillian cried out.
Marianne turned, fearing she had been hit.
Lillian pointed toward the barn.
Smoke rose through the loft window.
Flames spread across the dry hay.
Mercer had set the barn on fire.
Figures rushed outside.
The distraction bought them less than a minute, but it was enough to reach the woods.
They did not stop until the farmhouse lights disappeared.
At dawn, they found an abandoned hunting cabin beside a frozen pond.
Lillian slept on the floor beneath Naomi’s coat.
Marianne sat beside the window holding the brass key marked 417.
Naomi stared at the cassette recorder.
“If Rebecca is alive, why hasn’t she contacted me?”
“Maybe she couldn’t.”
“For eight years?”
Marianne looked at Lillian.
“Or maybe she did.”
Naomi frowned.
“The messages warning me about Derek were signed Naomi,” Marianne said.
“I sent those.”
“How did you know where I was at every moment?”
“The tracker.”
“You said Derek’s people placed it.”
“I assumed they did.”
Naomi’s eyes narrowed.
Marianne continued.
“You knew about the lottery before I told you. You knew about Union Station. You knew about the stopped clock. Now a key arrives with the same number.”
“What are you saying?”
“I think someone has been guiding both of us.”
Naomi looked at her phone.
A new message had appeared despite no signal inside the cabin.
It contained only one sentence.
May you like
Bring Marianne to Room 417 before Derek claims his father’s body.
Signed, Rebecca.
