Chapter 4 - The Missing Ten Minutes
I put the call on speaker.
“Who is this?”
The line disconnected.
Claire stared at me.
“What did he say?”
I repeated it.
Her face changed.
Mark noticed.
“What happened that night?”
“You already know.”
“No,” he said gently. “We know Ryan injured you. Apparently somebody thinks there's more.”
Claire sat down.
For several minutes, she said nothing.
Then she told us.
After Ryan stepped on her arm, Claire had lost consciousness.
She didn't know for how long.
When she woke, she was in the passenger seat of Ryan's car.
Patricia was driving.
Ryan sat in the back.
They took Claire to a private urgent-care clinic instead of the nearest emergency room.
“Why didn't you tell us?”
“I thought it didn't matter.”
Mark disagreed.
“What do you remember before waking up?”
“Ryan yelling.”
“What else?”
Claire concentrated.
“Someone knocked on the door.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Did Ryan answer?”
“I think so.”
“And then?”
“Nothing.”
Bell obtained nearby security footage.
A neighbor's camera had recorded part of the street.
At 7:42 p.m., a vehicle arrived at Claire's house.
At 7:44, a woman approached the door.
At 7:46, Ryan opened it.
At 7:48, the woman entered.
At 7:53, Patricia's car arrived.
At 8:01, Claire was carried outside.
At 8:04, Patricia drove away with Claire and Ryan.
The unknown woman never appeared leaving.
Mark replayed the footage.
“Who is she?”
Claire leaned closer.
Then whispered:
“I know her.”
Her name was Natalie Price.
A nurse.
The same nurse who had treated Claire months earlier after another injury Claire had claimed came from falling down stairs.
Natalie had quietly asked whether Claire felt safe at home.
Claire had lied.
But Natalie had given her a card.
A domestic violence hotline.
Claire kept it.
Ryan found it.
That had caused another argument.
“What was Natalie doing at your house?”
“I don't know.”
Bell contacted the hospital.
Natalie hadn't worked since the night Claire broke her arm.
She had requested sudden leave.
Nobody could reach her.
For the first time, police treated the situation as a possible missing-person case.
Ryan was questioned.
He denied Natalie had entered his house.
Video proved otherwise.
Then he changed his story.
He said she came to check on Claire and left through the back.
No camera covered the backyard.
Patricia claimed the same thing.
Their stories were almost identical.
Too identical.
Search warrants followed.
Investigators searched Ryan's house.
They found no sign of Natalie.
But in the garage, forensic technicians discovered a small blood trace beneath a storage cabinet.
It belonged to Claire.
That was expected.
A second trace did not.
Testing later identified Natalie.
Claire cried when Bell told us.
“Is she dead?”
“We don't know.”
Emily joined the investigation formally.
Her testimony established a pattern.
Ryan's attorney began negotiating.
Not for a settlement anymore.
For protection.
That told us Ryan was scared.
Then Patricia made a mistake.
She called Claire from a blocked number.
Claire recorded it.
“You've ruined his life,” Patricia said.
Claire remained calm.
“No. He did.”
“You don't understand men like Ryan.”
“I understand him now.”
“He loved you.”
“No.”
“He gave you everything.”
“He broke my arm.”
Silence.
Then Patricia said:
“You weren't supposed to wake up before we got you to the clinic.”
Claire stopped breathing.
So did I.
Patricia realized what she'd said.
The call ended.
Bell listened to the recording twice.
“That matters.”
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“We'll find out.”
Police returned to the private clinic.
The physician who treated Claire initially claimed not to remember anything unusual.
Then investigators showed him Patricia's financial records.
Two days after Claire's injury, Patricia had transferred $25,000 to a consulting company owned by the doctor's brother.
The doctor asked for an attorney.
Within hours, the story changed.
Claire had been sedated before arriving.
Patricia told the doctor she was hysterical.
The doctor documented the fracture but failed to report other concerns.
He admitted Ryan had pressured him.
Then he revealed something nobody expected.
Claire wasn't the only injured woman brought to that clinic that night.
Natalie had been there too.
Alive.
She had a head wound.
Ryan claimed Natalie had fallen.
The doctor treated her.
Then Patricia took her away.
“Where?”
“He said he didn't know.”
Bell didn't believe him.
Neither did Mark.
The clinic's parking cameras had been erased.
But cloud backups existed.
Technicians restored footage.
At 10:17 p.m., Patricia's car left.
Claire was no longer inside.
Ryan wasn't inside.
Patricia was driving.
Natalie sat in the passenger seat.
Alive.
The passenger window was partly down.
As Patricia's car passed the camera, Natalie raised one hand.
Something white was pressed against the glass.
A folded piece of paper.
Technicians enlarged the image.
There were letters on it.
Three words.
CALL DIANE ELLIS.
My name.
I stared at the screen.
“I had never met her.”
Claire looked at me.
“Then why did Natalie know your name?”
Nobody had an answer.
Until Mark slowly closed the laptop.
His face had gone pale.
“I think I do.”
He walked to his briefcase.
He removed an old case file.
The date on the front was almost eleven years earlier.
The victim's name was Rachel Morgan.
The woman whose phone had been found in Patricia's drawer.
Mark looked at me.
“Diane, there's something I never told you.”
He opened the file.
Inside was a photograph of Natalie.
May you like
And beneath it was a handwritten witness statement signed eleven years earlier.
The witness's name was Natalie Price.
