Chapter 11 - The Rabbit Book
Madison was asleep when Claire found the book beneath her pillow.
The cover was worn.
Daniel had read it to her dozens of times.
Claire carried it into the kitchen.
Brooks opened it carefully.
Nothing.
No envelope.
No loose pages.
Daniel examined the spine.
“Mom would know better than to hide paper where it could fall out.”
He ran his finger along the inside cover.
A slight ridge.
Brooks used a small blade.
The cardboard separated.
Inside was a microSD card.
Madison appeared in the doorway.
“You broke my book.”
Claire turned.
“Sweetheart.”
“You broke it.”
Daniel smiled weakly.
“Grandma hid something inside.”
Madison looked suspicious.
“Are you going to fix it?”
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Okay.”
She climbed into his lap.
Daniel winced.
She immediately pulled back.
“Did I hurt you?”
“No.”
“You made the face.”
“What face?”
“The hospital face.”
Claire looked away so Madison would not see her expression.
Daniel kissed his daughter’s forehead.
“It hurt a little.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry.”
She remained beside him while Brooks opened the card.
The contents contained original supplier contracts.
Emails.
Bank transfers.
Inspection reports.
And video.
One video showed Nathan Voss meeting Ryan at a private restaurant.
Voss pushed an envelope across the table.
Another showed inspectors receiving cash.
Another showed a man entering Daniel’s garage.
Aaron Pike.
The brake sabotage.
Clear.
Recorded.
Daniel stared.
“How did Evelyn get this?”
Brooks checked metadata.
“Hospital security archives.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“Pike visited Vale at County General using a contractor entrance.”
“Your mother-in-law apparently connected him to Voss.”
“She started collecting everything.”
Claire whispered, “She was trying to fix it.”
The final file was an audio recording.
Evelyn and Voss.
His voice was unmistakable.
“You should have let Mercer die in the crash.”
Evelyn answered, “Ryan made it worse.”
Voss laughed.
“Ryan always makes things worse.”
“He’s useful because he thinks greed makes him powerful.”
“It makes him predictable.”
Evelyn asked, “What are you going to do with Daniel?”
“Nothing.”
“Ryan has already buried him.”
“Then why are your men involved?”
“Because loose ends eventually speak.”
The recording ended.
Brooks stood.
“This is enough for federal warrants.”
“Then get Evelyn.”
“We’re moving.”
The private recovery center Ryan identified was called Hawthorne Rest.
Officially it served wealthy patients recovering from surgery and addiction.
Unofficially several rooms had no medical billing records.
Agents raided it before dawn.
They found three illegally sedated people.
None were Evelyn.
But one nurse recognized her photograph.
“She was here.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Where did she go?”
“A man transferred her.”
“Who?”
“Nathan Voss.”
The nurse began crying.
“He said she was family.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Then she remembered something.
“The driver mentioned an airfield.”
Voss owned a private jet.
Flight records showed a departure scheduled from Frederick Municipal Airport in ninety minutes.
Federal agents raced toward it.
Daniel wanted to go.
Brooks refused.
“You’re still recovering.”
“She’s my family.”
“And Madison needs you alive.”
That ended the argument.
At the airport, agents surrounded Voss’s aircraft.
The cabin was empty.
The pilot was missing.
Then Brooks noticed tire tracks leading away from the hangar.
The jet was a decoy.
Voss had never planned to fly.
A security camera showed a black van leaving twenty minutes earlier.
Its route led east.
Toward Baltimore.
Toward Harbor Point.
Daniel understood before Brooks called.
“He’s going to the towers.”
“Why?”
“To destroy evidence.”
Construction records.
Original material samples.
The unfinished buildings themselves.
Voss had spent years bribing people.
But concrete and steel could still testify.
Then Daniel realized something worse.
“Claire.”
She looked at him.
“The west tower has temporary gas lines for heating.”
“So?”
“If he wants to destroy the site…”
Brooks finished.
“He could make it look like a construction accident.”
Daniel grabbed his jacket.
May you like
“Evelyn may be inside.”
This time no one stopped him.
