Chapter 10 - ROSEHAVEN
The wounded officer survived.
A bullet had passed through his shoulder. The second struck the chapel’s wooden lectern.
Security footage showed how Mark escaped.
A paramedic team entered through the side corridor during the blackout, claiming a patient had collapsed. Their uniforms were authentic, but their identification belonged to employees working across town.
The team placed Mark on a stretcher and wheeled him through the loading area.
No one saw a weapon.
No one saw Mark resist.
Claire suspected he had helped arrange the escape.
Investigator Singh believed Robert had taken him.
Both could be true.
By sunrise, the hospital had become a fortress. State police controlled the floor. Every medication was checked by two nurses. Every visitor was photographed.
Claire should have felt safer.
Instead, she felt trapped while everyone else moved.
Leah was somewhere beneath Rosehaven.
Margaret might be there too.
Mark had vanished.
Helen remained missing.
Robert knew Claire was awake.
And the red key now sat inside a state evidence safe.
Julia studied the payment records Mark had sent.
The cloned consulting company had been created by someone using a scanned copy of Julia’s passport.
“Who had access?” Claire asked.
“A federal investigator I worked with four years ago.”
“Name?”
“Caleb Ward.”
Singh searched the name.
Agent Caleb Ward had died eighteen months earlier in a boating accident.
Julia did not believe it.
“Ward introduced me to Margaret,” she said. “He claimed he was investigating Bennett Urban Development.”
“Could he have worked for Robert?” Claire asked.
“He could have worked for both sides.”
Claire understood that every person in this story might have held more than one role.
Friend and investigator.
Mother and thief.
Husband and relative.
Victim and accomplice.
“Rosehaven,” Claire said. “Can we search it?”
Singh shook her head.
“Not based solely on the statement of a kidnapping suspect who then fled custody.”
“You have the video of Leah.”
“We cannot establish where it was recorded.”
“The photograph shows Robert.”
“That proves he was at Easton last night. It doesn’t connect him to Rosehaven.”
“So we wait?”
“We build probable cause.”
Claire looked down at her body.
Waiting was what people demanded from those who had the least power.
Wait until the pain is documented.
Wait until the threat is repeated.
Wait until the witness is dead enough to be believed.
“No,” Claire said.
Julia understood first.
“You want to create a reason for them to move.”
“If Robert believes I can access the box, he needs me alive.”
“For now.”
“I can use that.”
Singh objected immediately.
Claire continued.
“Send a message through Mark’s phone. Tell Robert I remember the vault and that I’ll trade access for Leah and Margaret.”
“We don’t control Mark’s phone,” Singh said.
“But I know someone who can reach him.”
Claire called Daniel.
He answered from the interview room.
“What do you need?”
“Robert’s private contact.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You contacted him after Leah showed you the records.”
“That number changed.”
“Then contact Evelyn.”
Claire watched through the glass as Daniel looked toward his mother-in-law.
Evelyn sat beneath guard, perfectly composed.
“She won’t help,” Daniel said.
“She will if she thinks Mark is in danger.”
Evelyn was brought into a monitored room.
Claire spoke to her by video.
Evelyn’s face appeared on the screen, elegant even after a sleepless night.
“You look terrible,” she said.
“You taught your son to step on a woman’s fingers.”
“I taught him survival.”
“Robert has Mark.”
A flicker of fear passed through Evelyn’s eyes.
“Mark escaped.”
“Two armed men took him.”
“He arranged it.”
“Then call him.”
Evelyn leaned back.
“What do you want?”
“Leah and Margaret.”
“In exchange for what?”
“The red key and my access.”
Evelyn studied her.
“You don’t know what you’re offering.”
“Then explain it.”
“You think Northstar is an inheritance. It is a graveyard with bank accounts.”
“Call Robert.”
Evelyn looked toward someone outside the camera.
“You always were more like Arthur than Helen wanted.”
“Is that why she hates me?”
“Helen doesn’t hate you. She hates what you prove.”
“What do I prove?”
“That Arthur chose a child over her.”
Claire’s throat tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn smiled faintly.
“You should ask your real mother.”
The connection ended.
Claire stared at the black screen.
Julia looked stunned.
“My real mother?”
Before anyone could answer, Daniel shouted from the interview room.
An officer opened the door.
Daniel stumbled into the hallway holding his phone.
“I reached Mark.”
“Where is he?” Claire asked.
“He sent coordinates.”
The location pointed to Rosehaven Assisted Living, forty miles north of the city.
A second message arrived from Mark.
Do not send police. Robert can see every vehicle.
Then a third.
Room 214. She has been waiting for Claire.
“Who?” Julia asked.
May you like
Daniel showed them the final message.
Margaret Vale.
