Chapter 11 - Smoke in the Walls
Kessler regained consciousness fully inside the ambulance.
Dana rode with him.
Marcus and Elena followed to the hospital.
By dawn, detectives guarded every entrance.
No one entered Elena’s floor without identification and physical verification.
Kessler had a concussion.
Two cracked ribs.
Needle marks on his left arm.
He claimed Victoria abducted him from the private air terminal before police arrived.
Dana did not immediately believe him.
Neither did Elena.
“Why would she kidnap you?”
Kessler looked exhausted.
“To keep me from talking.”
“You were already running.”
“Yes.”
“So you were willing to abandon us.”
Kessler closed his eyes.
“I was afraid.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“So was I.”
Kessler looked at her.
“I didn’t know she was using the drug on you at first.”
“At first.”
“No.”
“Be careful with that phrase.”
Kessler nodded.
“I deserve that.”
Marcus stood near the door.
“What does ‘baby born without her’ mean?”
Kessler hesitated.
Dana leaned forward.
“Answer.”
Kessler looked at Elena.
“Victoria asked me questions about emergency delivery.”
Elena’s skin went cold.
“What questions?”
“What would happen if the mother became medically incapacitated near the third trimester.”
Marcus’s hands curled into fists.
“What else?”
“She wanted to know who could authorize treatment.”
“What treatment?”
“Cesarean delivery.”
Elena covered her belly.
“She wanted them to cut my baby out of me.”
“I never agreed.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“But you answered her questions.”
Kessler flinched.
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“She asked about sedation.”
“What kind?”
“Enough to keep someone unconscious for several hours.”
Elena struggled to breathe evenly.
Dana noticed.
“We can stop.”
“No.”
Elena shook her head.
“I want everything.”
Kessler continued.
“Victoria believed the guardianship petition would work.”
“It didn’t.”
“No.”
“What changed?”
“You found the recordings.”
“So she changed plans.”
“Yes.”
Marcus looked at him.
“What is the new plan?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said the baby born without Elena.”
“That was a phrase Victoria used.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Kessler swallowed.
“She said if Elena couldn’t be legally removed, she could be medically removed.”
Dana wrote it down.
“Did Victoria ask you to harm Elena?”
“No.”
“To provide drugs?”
Kessler looked away.
Dana repeated.
“Did she ask you to provide drugs?”
“Yes.”
“What did you give her?”
“Sedatives.”
Marcus moved.
Dana stood between them.
“Sit down.”
Marcus’s voice shook.
“My wife is pregnant.”
“I know.”
“You gave Victoria sedatives.”
“I thought—”
“No.”
Elena spoke quietly.
“Don’t say you thought.”
Kessler looked at her.
“You stopped thinking a long time ago.”
He had no answer.
Dana asked.
“Where are the sedatives?”
“I don’t know.”
“How many?”
“Enough for several doses.”
Dana’s expression hardened.
“You understand you’re describing conspiracy to assault a pregnant woman.”
“Yes.”
“And possibly conspiracy to commit homicide.”
Kessler closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Elena stared at him.
“Why did Victoria choose you?”
Kessler laughed weakly.
“She saved my company.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“She owned my debt.”
“What debt?”
“My research failed.”
He looked at Marcus.
“Eight years ago I was close to bankruptcy.”
“When my father was still alive.”
“Yes.”
“Victoria invested.”
“Yes.”
“In exchange for what?”
Kessler’s eyes moved toward the window.
“Access.”
“To the drug?”
“To everything.”
Elena thought of Caroline.
“Did you treat Marcus’s mother?”
Kessler froze.
Marcus stopped breathing.
Dana lowered her pen.
“Kessler.”
He whispered.
“Yes.”
Marcus walked backward as if struck.
Elena stared.
“You gave Caroline drugs.”
“I was a resident consultant at the private clinic her psychiatrist used.”
“Did Victoria ask you to alter her medication?”
Silence.
Marcus crossed the room in two steps.
Dana blocked him again.
“Answer him.”
Kessler was crying now.
“Yes.”
Marcus looked like he might kill him.
Elena grabbed Marcus’s arm.
Not to protect Kessler.
To protect Marcus.
“Don’t give Victoria another victim.”
Marcus looked at Elena.
The sentence reached him.
He stepped back.
Kessler wiped his face.
“I changed Caroline’s prescription twice.”
“Did you kill her?”
Marcus asked.
“No.”
“You expect me to believe you?”
“I did not give her the overdose.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you helped make everyone believe she was unstable.”
“Yes.”
Marcus turned away.
Elena had never seen him look so broken.
Kessler continued.
“Your father discovered part of it years later.”
Marcus looked back.
“What part?”
“He found the prescription records.”
“That’s why he changed the trust.”
“I think so.”
Elena asked.
“Why didn’t he expose Victoria?”
Kessler shook his head.
“Because she had something on him.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Kessler grabbed Elena’s wrist suddenly.
Marcus nearly lunged.
Kessler whispered.
“There’s one thing you have to understand.”
Elena pulled her hand free.
“What?”
“Victoria doesn’t improvise.”
Elena stared.
“Everything that looks like panic is usually part of something she decided weeks ago.”
The nursery fire.
The hospital theft.
Kessler’s kidnapping.
The guardianship hearing.
All distractions.
“What is she distracting us from?”
Kessler shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Elena thought about the estate.
The evidence.
The baby.
Then one memory surfaced.
Victoria’s words on the phone.
You still think this is about your wife.
It’s about the child.
Elena turned to Marcus.
“The trust.”
“What?”
“She can’t control the shares unless the baby is born.”
Marcus nodded slowly.
“And if I’m incapacitated.”
“Yes.”
“So why attack me before the birth?”
Marcus suddenly understood.
“She needs the baby alive.”
Kessler went pale.
Dana noticed.
“What?”
Kessler looked at Elena.
“Victoria asked one other question.”
Elena’s blood ran cold.
“What question?”
“She asked whether a newborn could be legally transferred between hospitals without the mother’s signature if the mother was unconscious.”
Nobody moved.
Marcus whispered.
“She isn’t planning to kill Elena.”
Dana’s eyes hardened.
“No.”
May you like
Elena finished the thought.
“She’s planning to take my baby.”
