Chapter 10 - the body beneath thomas’s name
Thomas Hart’s death had never been questioned.
His chartered aircraft crashed into the sea during a storm. Two passengers and one pilot were listed onboard. Recovery crews found wreckage, personal belongings, and partial remains.
The remains identified as Thomas had been confirmed through dental records.
At least, that was what Emily had been told.
Marcus requested the complete identification file.
Several pages were missing.
The dental confirmation had been signed by Dr. Adrian Cole.
At the time, Cole had not worked in aviation medicine or forensic identification. He had been a private physician for Hart Meridian executives.
Emily remembered meeting him once at a company dinner.
Thomas had disliked him.
“He called Cole a professional signature,” she told Marcus. “A man wealthy people paid to certify whatever they needed certified.”
Marcus looked through the death file.
“Cole later became Madison’s physician.”
“And mine.”
The hospital had assigned Cole to Emily after the driveway accident because he claimed familiarity with her medical history.
He had controlled her medication for the first nine days.
He had also signed the order declaring her temporarily incapable.
Lily sat in the attorney’s conference room, building a house from wooden blocks while Emily and Marcus worked.
She placed a small figure outside the house.
“This is the man who watches.”
Emily looked at the figure.
“What man?”
“The one from the hospital window.”
Marcus knelt beside her.
“Can you describe him?”
“He wore a blue hat.”
“Did you see his face?”
“No. Every time I looked, he turned.”
“How many times did you see him?”
“Three.”
Emily’s pulse accelerated.
“Did Aunt Madison see him?”
Lily nodded.
“She went outside to talk to him.”
“What happened?”
“She came back crying.”
Madison did not cry easily.
“What did she say?”
“She said, ‘I did everything you asked.’”
Marcus stood.
“We need the hospital camera footage.”
The hospital initially claimed it had been deleted under routine retention rules. Evelyn discovered that someone had copied the exterior footage to a private server before deletion.
The copy was found inside Nolan’s seized laptop.
At 6:12 p.m. on Emily’s seventh day in the hospital, Madison exited through the side entrance.
A tall man in a blue cap waited beneath the trees.
His face remained turned from the camera.
Madison handed him an envelope.
He gave her the wooden box from Thomas’s study.
Before leaving, he touched her shoulder.
Madison stepped back as if she had seen a ghost.
Evelyn enlarged the final frame.
The man wore a watch on his left wrist.
Thomas’s watch.
Emily had given it to him on their tenth wedding anniversary. The back bore an engraving.
UNTIL EVERY ROAD BRINGS US HOME.
The watch had not been recovered from the crash.
Marcus remained silent for a long time.
Emily forced herself to speak.
“A watch can be stolen.”
“Yes.”
“A body was identified.”
“Yes.”
“Thomas is dead.”
Marcus closed the laptop.
“We should not assume anything until the records are verified.”
But Emily could see the same thought in his eyes.
The letter excluding Lily might not have been forged by someone imitating Thomas.
It might have been written by Thomas himself.
That evening, the forensic laboratory called.
The ink on the exclusion letter was less than two months old.
Thomas had been declared dead three years earlier.
The paper contained a partial fingerprint.
May you like
The print matched neither Madison nor Nolan.
It matched the fingerprint stored in Thomas Hart’s original company security file.
