Chapter 4 - The Hospital That Erased Her
The woman's name was Dr. Natalie Price.
She had worked at Mayfield Medical Center for twelve years.
For the last three, she had been listed as retired.
But according to Detective Brooks, someone had continued paying her nearly forty thousand dollars a month.
Through a shell company.
A shell company controlled by Andrew Blackwood.
Richard stared at the financial report.
"She was receiving half a million dollars a year?"
"Approximately."
"For what?"
"That's what we're trying to find out."
Brooks slid another photograph toward him.
Natalie stood beside Victoria at Richard's wedding.
Both women were smiling.
Richard remembered Victoria introducing her.
My oldest friend from college.
He felt the room tilt.
"Victoria knew her."
"Very well."
"She knew Caroline too?"
Brooks opened a folder.
"Dr. Price supervised your first wife's treatment at Mayfield."
Richard stared at the paper.
"Victoria told me she'd never met Caroline."
Brooks didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
Every lie had been placed carefully around him.
Each one had made the next easier to believe.
Richard studied the documents.
"Why was Caroline hospitalized?"
Brooks looked up.
"You signed the admission paperwork."
"I signed papers after Andrew told me Caroline was suicidal."
"Were you present during the evaluation?"
"No."
"Did you speak to the physician?"
"Andrew said she needed privacy."
Brooks rested her hands on the table.
"Richard, when was the last time you saw Caroline before the accident?"
He knew the answer.
He had repeated it to himself for three years.
"March seventeenth."
"Where?"
"In our bedroom."
"What happened?"
"She told me she was afraid."
"Of whom?"
"She wouldn't say."
He remembered the rain.
Caroline standing at the window in her pale green sweater.
Oliver asleep in the next room.
She had asked him to take them away.
Just for a few weeks.
Somewhere Andrew couldn't find them.
Richard had told her she was exhausted.
He had suggested another appointment with Dr. Price.
Caroline had looked at him as though he were a stranger.
Then she said something he had never understood.
One day, Richard, you're going to learn what your loyalty costs.
The following morning, she disappeared.
Andrew said she'd taken her car.
Two hours later, police found it burned near a ravine.
A body had been recovered.
The coffin remained closed because the remains were badly damaged.
Andrew identified her.
Richard never saw her face again.
Until tonight.
"She was never in that car," Richard whispered.
Brooks nodded.
"That's a possibility we're investigating."
"No."
Richard stood.
"That's what happened."
Brooks pointed to the chair.
"Sit down."
He didn't.
"My brother identified a body that wasn't hers. He paid the doctor who treated her. He married me off to that doctor's best friend."
He looked at the photograph.
"And now someone has threatened to kill her unless I surrender the company."
Brooks let him finish.
Then she said something he hadn't expected.
"We may have another problem."
Richard froze.
"What?"
"The woman found at Dr. Price's residence wasn't Natalie."
He stared.
"You said she was dead."
"I said the former medical director was reported dead. Her identity had not been independently confirmed."
"Then who was it?"
"Her younger sister."
Richard sat down.
Brooks continued.
"Natalie is missing."
"Victoria?"
"Also missing."
"Andrew?"
"Still missing."
Richard laughed once.
A sound without humor.
"Everyone who knows what happened to my wife has disappeared."
"Not everyone."
Brooks opened a second folder.
Inside was a photograph of an older nurse.
Silver hair.
Tired blue eyes.
A plain navy uniform.
"Margaret Ellis."
Richard frowned.
"Who is she?"
"Former psychiatric nurse at Mayfield."
"Does she know Caroline?"
"We believe so."
Brooks leaned forward.
"She contacted our department six weeks ago."
Richard's anger rose.
"Six weeks?"
"She reported suspicious patient transfers and possible falsification of medical records. The complaint was assigned to another investigator."
"What happened?"
"She withdrew it."
"Why?"
"We don't know."
Richard stood again.
"Where is she?"
Brooks hesitated.
"That's complicated."
"Detective."
"Margaret disappeared four days ago."
Richard stared at her.
Then Oliver's words echoed in his mind.
A lady comes to the basement when everybody's asleep.
"Show me her photograph again."
Brooks passed it over.
Richard took it to Oliver's bedside.
"Buddy?"
Oliver looked up.
"Do you know this woman?"
The boy studied the picture.
His eyes widened.
"That's her."
Richard's hand tightened.
"The lady from the basement?"
Oliver nodded.
"She gave Mommy medicine."
Brooks stepped closer.
"What kind of medicine?"
Oliver shook his head.
"I don't know."
"Did she hurt your mother?"
"No."
The boy frowned.
"She cried when she saw me."
Richard knelt beside him.
"What did she say?"
Oliver looked at the photograph.
"She said she was sorry."
"Sorry for what?"
"For keeping Mommy asleep."
Richard's breath caught.
Brooks immediately wrote it down.
"Did she tell you anything else?"
Oliver nodded.
"She said the sleeping medicine wasn't working anymore."
Richard and Brooks exchanged a look.
Then Oliver whispered.
"That's why Uncle Andrew said they had to move Mommy before Daddy came home."
Richard looked at the detective.
"Can you trace the vehicle that left my house?"
"We're checking every camera along the access roads."
"And Mayfield?"
"A team is heading there."
Richard reached for his coat.
Brooks shook her head.
"No."
"I'm coming."
"You have a gunshot wound."
"My wife has been missing for three years."
"And your son needs you alive."
That stopped him.
Richard looked at Oliver.
The boy was watching him with terrified eyes.
"Are you leaving, Daddy?"
Richard sat beside him.
"No."
He picked up the small hand.
"I'm staying."
Oliver squeezed his fingers.
For the first time since the party, the boy smiled faintly.
Then a nurse entered.
"Mr. Blackwood?"
"Yes?"
"Someone left an envelope at the front desk."
Richard frowned.
"For me?"
She nodded.
"No name."
Inside was a photograph taken that afternoon.
It showed Caroline standing beside a window.
Behind her was a harbor.
A red lighthouse rose beyond the water.
On the back, someone had written:
SHE WAS NEVER YOUR BROTHER'S PRISONER.
Richard stared at the words.
May you like
Below them was a second sentence.
SHE WAS YOUR FATHER'S.
