Chapter 10 - Locker Seventeen
Naomi sent a private investigator to Briarwood Central Station before sunrise.
By then, Ruth had been stabilized but remained unconscious.
The substance in her IV line was not a standard hospital sedative. It was a drug capable of causing respiratory failure when combined with the medication already in her system.
Someone had tried to kill her inside the hospital.
Security footage showed a man entering through a staff corridor using a stolen badge.
His face was hidden.
His height and build matched Vale.
At six fifteen, Naomi’s investigator called.
Locker seventeen was empty.
The lock had been broken recently.
Claire sat in a conference room with Oliver, Naomi, and Mark.
Two officers waited outside.
Mark had agreed to cooperate, but he was not free to leave.
Naomi placed photographs of the damaged locker on the table.
“Someone reached it before us,” she said.
Mark looked at Claire.
“My mother knew.”
“How?” Oliver asked.
Mark hesitated.
“The house has microphones.”
Claire remembered every whispered conversation.
The bathroom.
The library.
Their bedroom.
“She heard Ruth,” Claire said.
“She hears everything,” Mark replied.
Naomi leaned forward.
“Did Elena use that locker to store evidence?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“Bank records. Audio tapes. A list of people who had been confined at private clinics funded by the Bennett Foundation.”
“Why didn’t she take it to the police?”
“She did.”
Claire looked at him sharply.
“Mercer?”
Mark nodded.
“Elena trusted him. He gave everything to my mother.”
“And Elena died.”
Mark closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Naomi studied him.
“You told Claire you helped Elena escape.”
“I tried.”
“Explain.”
Mark looked older than he had the day before.
“Elena discovered my mother had been using the foundation’s clinics to hold people who threatened her business partners. Some were declared unstable. Some were placed under guardianship. Their property was transferred. Their testimony disappeared.”
“Kidnapping through medical paperwork,” Naomi said.
Mark nodded.
“Elena copied records. We planned to leave together. The night we were supposed to go, my mother found out.”
“What did you do?”
“I drove Elena to the station. She put the evidence in the locker. Then she went to Mercer.”
“And you?”
“I went back to the estate to get money.”
Claire stared at him.
“You left her alone.”
“I thought Mercer would protect her.”
“You always think someone else will protect the woman you leave behind.”
Mark flinched.
“I returned to the station. Elena was gone. Mercer told me she had changed her mind and left the city.”
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“You believed him?”
“No. But my mother showed me a video of Elena boarding a
