Chapter 4 - room 417
Daniel Carter was found alive.
Rachel learned that twelve minutes later.
She had never been so relieved and so afraid at the same time.
Marcus called.
"They found him."
Rachel nearly dropped the phone.
"Is he okay?"
"He's unconscious."
Her knees weakened.
"What happened?"
"They don't know. He's breathing. Paramedics are taking him to Mercy General in Richmond."
Rachel pressed one hand against the wall.
Alive.
Daniel was alive.
Behind her, Vanessa sat at the dining table with Officer Ruiz.
The second the word unconscious was spoken, Vanessa closed her eyes.
Rachel saw it.
"You knew."
Vanessa shook her head.
"You knew something could happen to him."
"No."
"You just said it wasn't supposed to be Daniel."
Vanessa looked at the floor.
Ruiz leaned forward.
"Vanessa, now is the time to start telling the truth."
Vanessa covered her face.
For several seconds, the only sound was her breathing.
Then she whispered.
"They said they were going to scare him."
Rachel stepped closer.
"Who?"
No answer.
"Who?"
Vanessa began crying.
"Elise."
"E.M.?"
Vanessa nodded.
Officer Ruiz asked, "Full name."
"Elise Marrow."
Rachel had never heard it.
Ruiz wrote it down.
"Who is she?"
Vanessa stared at the table.
"She helps people."
Rachel almost laughed from disbelief.
"She helps people?"
"People who need money. People with problems."
"What kind of problems involve buyers waiting for newborn babies?"
Vanessa flinched.
"I wasn't selling Noah."
Margaret had returned from the ambulance bay because the hospital allowed her to ride separately after the initial examination confirmed Noah was stable enough for transport.
She stood in the doorway.
"Then what were you doing?"
Vanessa looked at the baby in Margaret's arms.
Something broke across her face.
"I was trying to make them think I would."
Rachel frowned.
"What?"
Vanessa looked at her.
"Elise gave me money."
"Why?"
"Because I owed people."
"What people?"
Vanessa wiped her face.
"I started gambling online last year."
Rachel said nothing.
Daniel had complained about money missing.
Seven months.
February.
Vanessa continued.
"It started small. Sports. Cards. Then private games. I kept thinking I could win it back."
"How much?"
Vanessa hesitated.
"How much?"
"At first twenty thousand."
Margaret closed her eyes.
"And then?"
"Seventy."
Rachel stared.
"Seventy thousand dollars?"
Vanessa nodded.
"Daniel would have helped you."
"No, he would have left me."
"You don't know that."
"I do."
Rachel thought of her brother.
Daniel was patient almost to a fault.
He forgave too much.
Vanessa knew that.
Which meant gambling alone was not the full story.
"Keep going."
Vanessa inhaled.
"I borrowed from accounts Daniel didn't check every day."
"His business?"
"I was going to replace it."
"How much did you take?"
"One hundred and twelve thousand."
Margaret sat down slowly.
Rachel felt physically sick.
"Elise knew?"
"She introduced me to someone who could cover the debt."
"In exchange for what?"
Vanessa began shaking.
"Information."
"What information?"
"About families."
Rachel frowned.
"What families?"
"New mothers. Women who were struggling. People who might consider private adoption."
The room became completely still.
Rachel understood before Vanessa finished.
"You gave her names."
Vanessa nodded.
"I worked at the prenatal wellness center. I could see appointment information."
Officer Ruiz's expression hardened.
"You gave confidential patient information to Elise Marrow?"
"I didn't know what she was really doing at first."
"When did you know?"
Vanessa did not answer.
Rachel leaned toward her.
"When?"
"April."
Five months earlier.
Before Noah was born.
Rachel stared.
"And you kept helping her."
"I was trapped."
"No. You were afraid."
Vanessa looked up angrily.
"You don't understand what those people are like."
"You are right. I don't."
Rachel pointed toward Noah.
"But I understand what you were doing this morning."
Vanessa shook her head.
"They weren't going to keep him."
Margaret's voice became dangerously quiet.
"Explain that sentence."
Vanessa began speaking faster.
"Elise said if I wanted out, I had to prove I could still be useful. She wanted me to bring Noah to a hotel. She said they would photograph him, create records, use the meeting as leverage against me."
Rachel stared.
"Leverage for what?"
"To make sure I never talked."
"You expect us to believe they only wanted pictures?"
"I don't know anymore."
There it was.
The first honest sentence Vanessa had spoken.
I don't know anymore.
Rachel remembered the stranger on the porch.
His eyes had gone directly to the baby.
"Why was Noah inside the bin?"
Vanessa squeezed her hands together.
"I was trying to carry him out without Mom seeing."
Margaret looked stunned.
"You put him in that container because you knew I would stop you."
"The lid was loose."
Rachel slammed her palm on the table.
"Stop saying that."
Vanessa flinched.
"The fact that you keep defending how you did it tells me you still don't understand what you did."
Vanessa cried silently.
Rachel did not soften.
Not yet.
"What happened to Daniel?"
Vanessa wiped her cheek.
"Elise realized he was looking at the Hanover accounts."
"What are the Hanover accounts?"
"Where I moved some of the money."
"How?"
"I created fake vendor payments."
Rachel's mind went back to the folder.
"Daniel found them."
"Yes."
"When?"
"Yesterday."
"And?"
"He confronted me."
Rachel froze.
Daniel had never mentioned that.
"What did you tell him?"
"That it was accounting fraud by a subcontractor."
"Did he believe you?"
Vanessa gave a small, miserable laugh.
"No."
Of course he hadn't.
Daniel was trusting.
He was not stupid.
"He said he was coming home early."
Rachel checked the time.
Daniel had told her he would finish the inspection first.
Vanessa must have convinced him otherwise.
"What did you do?"
"I called Elise."
Rachel felt dread build.
"What did she say?"
"That she would handle it."
"Handle it how?"
"I thought she meant threaten him."
Rachel stared at her.
"You knew she was involved in an illegal adoption network and stealing information from vulnerable mothers, and when you said your husband was investigating, you thought she would politely threaten him?"
Vanessa looked down.
No answer.
"What happened at the hotel?"
"I don't know."
"Why did you know he wouldn't answer?"
"Elise texted me at four fourteen."
Rachel looked toward the burner phone.
"What did she say?"
Vanessa whispered.
"Problem contained."
No one spoke.
Officer Ruiz stood.
"We're going to need that phone."
Vanessa nodded.
"And the passcode."
Vanessa hesitated.
Rachel watched her.
"Give it."
Vanessa closed her eyes.
"1908."
Ruiz wrote it down without touching the device.
Rachel looked toward the staircase.
"What else is upstairs?"
Vanessa said nothing.
Rachel pointed toward Daniel's office.
"You fought me when I tried to go up there."
"I didn't want you finding the folder."
"The folder is gone."
Vanessa's expression shifted.
"What?"
"You didn't take it?"
"No."
"Then who did?"
Vanessa looked genuinely frightened.
Rachel believed that part.
Vanessa slowly turned toward the front windows.
"Elise."
Officer Ruiz asked, "Does Elise have access to this house?"
"No."
Vanessa swallowed.
"But Greg does."
"Who is Greg?"
Vanessa's voice became very quiet.
"The man who was just at the door."
Rachel remembered the gray jacket.
The black SUV.
The hand inside his pocket.
"Full name."
"Gregory Hale."
Margaret frowned.
"Why does that name sound familiar?"
Vanessa looked at her.
"Because Daniel knows him."
Rachel felt a new chill.
"How?"
May you like
Vanessa stared at her.
"Greg worked for Daniel."
