Chapter 5 - THE DAUGHTER BEHIND THE LOCKED DOOR
Eleanor climbed the stairs despite Richard’s orders.
He followed closely.
“You are not permitted to disturb Caroline.”
“She signed a fraudulent document.”
“You’re confused.”
“I recognize my own signature.”
“That is your signature.”
“No.”
“You signed it last Thursday.”
“I was at the Baltimore clinic last Thursday.”
Richard smiled.
“According to whom?”
“According to fifty employees.”
“Employees whose salaries depend on you.”
Eleanor reached Caroline’s bedroom and tried the handle.
Locked.
She struck the door with her palm.
“Caroline!”
There was movement inside.
Then silence.
“Caroline, open the door.”
Richard placed himself between Eleanor and the handle.
“She needs rest.”
“Why is the door locked from outside?”
“For her safety.”
“Move.”
“No.”
Marian appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Mrs. Vale’s medication is scheduled.”
“I will handle it,” Richard said.
“What did you give her?”
“A prescribed sedative.”
“Which one?”
He did not answer.
Marian moved toward the door.
“As her nurse, I need to evaluate her.”
“You are Eleanor’s nurse.”
“I am licensed to evaluate anyone in immediate medical danger.”
“She is not in danger.”
A weak voice came from inside.
“Mother?”
Eleanor pushed past Richard.
“Caroline!”
The door shook as someone touched it from the other side.
“Mother, please go.”
“Open the door.”
“I can’t.”
Richard grabbed Eleanor’s shoulder.
She turned and slapped him.
The sound echoed through the hallway.
Everyone froze.
Richard touched his cheek.
His expression became strangely calm.
“You should not have done that.”
Eleanor faced him.
“Then call the police.”
He almost smiled.
“You are legally impaired. You assaulted your caretaker during an episode of confusion.”
“I am not your patient.”
“Not yet.”
He walked downstairs.
Marian waited until he disappeared before kneeling beside the lock.
She removed a thin metal tool from her medical bag.
“Where did you learn that?” Eleanor whispered.
“College housing.”
The lock clicked.
They entered.
Caroline lay in bed wearing yesterday’s clothes. An empty glass rested on the bedside table beside a bottle of pills.
Marian picked it up.
The label identified a mild anti-anxiety medication, but the tablets inside were the wrong color.
She examined one beneath the lamp.
“These are strong sedatives.”
Caroline struggled to focus.
“Richard said they would help me sleep.”
“How many did you take?” Marian asked.
“Two. Maybe three.”
Eleanor sat beside her.
“Did you sign a document yesterday?”
Caroline began crying.
“He said it was temporary.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That you tried to transfer company money to strangers.”
“That is false.”
“He showed me the bank records.”
“Richard controls which records you see.”
Caroline covered her face.
“He said the doctors believed you were dangerous.”
“The doctors arrived this morning.”
“He said another doctor examined you last week.”
“No doctor examined me.”
Caroline looked toward the hallway.
“He said you attacked him.”
“I slapped him ten minutes ago.”
“He showed me bruises yesterday.”
Eleanor felt cold.
Richard had been preparing Caroline before the confrontation even occurred.
He had created evidence in advance, just as he had created the medical report.
Marian checked Caroline’s pulse.
“You need to leave this house.”
Caroline shook her head.
“He’ll know.”
“Good,” Eleanor said.
“No. You don’t understand.”
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“He has someone watching Julia’s children.”
Eleanor stared at her.
“What?”
“He showed me pictures of them outside their school.”
Julia was Caroline’s cousin and closest childhood friend.
“He said if I fought him, something could happen.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He said your phones were monitored.”
“They are.”
Caroline’s eyes widened.
“He told me you would pretend to believe me so you could use me against him.”
Eleanor looked at her daughter’s trembling hands.
For months, Richard had been constructing two separate prisons.
One around Eleanor’s finances.
The other around Caroline’s mind.
Marian opened her medical bag.
“We can take you out through the service entrance.”
Caroline caught Eleanor’s wrist.
“There’s a guard.”
“What guard?”
“A man named Cole. Richard hired him last week.”
Eleanor had seen Cole twice, a heavyset man who claimed to be part of a new security service.
“Does he carry a weapon?”
Caroline nodded.
Marian moved toward the window.
“The garden wall is too high.”
“There is another way,” Eleanor said.
A concealed servants’ staircase connected the bedroom corridor to an old pantry near the rear entrance. Richard did not know it existed.
Eleanor’s husband had discovered it during renovations and kept it intact because their grandchildren enjoyed using it as a secret passage.
There had been no grandchildren.
After Caroline’s miscarriages, the passage remained unused.
Until now.
They moved through the hidden door behind a wardrobe.
Marian supported Caroline down the narrow staircase.
Eleanor followed.
At the bottom, they entered the pantry.
The rear entrance stood twenty feet away.
Eleanor reached for the handle.
Then someone knocked from outside.
Not loudly.
Three careful taps.
Marian looked through the narrow window.
A man in a dark jacket stood on the step.
He held up identification.
Federal Agent Daniel Cross.
Eleanor opened the door only a few inches.
“How did you find us?”
“Dr. Larkin contacted my office.”
“He told us he was afraid.”
“He is.”
Cross glanced behind her.
“May I come in?”
“Not yet.”
“Mrs. Whitmore, we believe your son-in-law may be connected to a financial fraud investigation involving several medical foundations.”
“Believe?”
“We need evidence.”
“I have some.”
“Not enough for an arrest.”
“Then what do you want?”
“To place a recording system in this house.”
Eleanor studied his face.
“You arrived at a useful moment.”
Before Cross could answer, the pantry door opened behind them.
Richard stood there.
His eyes moved from Eleanor to Caroline, then to the federal identification in Cross’s hand.
No one spoke.
May you like
Richard smiled.
“Mother,” he said softly, “who is your new friend?”
