Chapter 2 - The Woman They Meant to Blame
Norah did not scream.
She wanted to.
Instead she stared at Marcus until his words arranged themselves into something her mind could understand.
Angela was dead.
In Norah’s apartment.
A bottle connected to Gideon’s poisoning was beside her.
Someone had built the accusation carefully.
Too carefully.
“I didn’t kill her.”
Marcus’s expression revealed nothing.
“I didn’t ask whether you did.”
“But you’re thinking it.”
“Right now, I’m thinking about everything.”
Two security men positioned themselves near Norah.
Dr. Hart continued working on Gideon.
The monitor steadied enough that the immediate panic passed, but Gideon remained unconscious.
Norah felt suddenly alone.
Without him awake, nobody in the room had ordered the guards to listen to her.
Dr. Kessler stepped closer to Marcus.
“For everyone’s safety, she should be removed.”
Norah looked at him.
“Why?”
“You handled the contaminated glass.”
“Because I found it.”
“And now a dead nurse is in your apartment.”
“I’m aware.”
“Your initials are on a bottle.”
Norah took a slow breath.
“Exactly.”
Kessler frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“It means whoever did this wanted you to find my initials.”
Marcus watched her.
“Explain.”
“If I were trying to poison Gideon, why would I write my initials on the poison?”
Nobody answered.
Norah looked directly at Marcus.
“And why would I leave a dead woman in my own apartment?”
“People make mistakes.”
“Not this many obvious ones.”
Marcus’s eyes narrowed.
For several seconds, Norah could not tell whether he believed her.
Then he said, “Search her room here at the estate.”
One guard left.
Norah’s stomach tightened.
She knew what would happen.
They would find something.
Whoever had framed her had planned beyond the apartment.
“Marcus.”
He looked at her.
“They’re going to find another bottle.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that’s what I would do if I wanted you to stop asking questions.”
Dr. Hart glanced over.
Even Marcus seemed unsettled by the certainty in Norah’s voice.
Ten minutes later, the radio confirmed it.
A vial was found beneath Norah’s mattress in the staff quarters.
Marcus swore softly.
Norah almost laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the trap was so complete it became absurd.
“See?”
Marcus looked at her.
“That doesn’t prove your innocence.”
“No. But it proves whoever did this thinks you’re stupid.”
That got his attention.
Norah continued before fear stopped her.
“They put Angela in my apartment. They put poison under my mattress. They labeled bottles with my initials. They need you to stop at me.”
Marcus approached until only a few feet separated them.
“You’re telling a man with thirty years in security that he’s being manipulated?”
“I’m telling you the person doing this knows exactly how you investigate.”
The room became quiet again.
Marcus stared at her.
Then Gideon spoke.
“Untie her.”
Norah turned.
She had not realized one guard had secured a plastic restraint loosely around her wrist.
Gideon’s eyes were open.
His voice was weak.
But unmistakable.
“Sir,” Marcus said.
“I said untie her.”
The guard cut the restraint.
Gideon looked at Norah.
“You think somebody wants Marcus to arrest you.”
“Yes.”
“Why you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You noticed the glass.”
“That happened after the plan was already in motion.”
Gideon’s gaze sharpened.
“Exactly.”
Norah understood what he meant.
The person had decided to frame her before she ever raised the alarm.
That meant there had to be another reason she had been chosen.
Gideon asked, “What have you seen?”
Norah thought back over the last month.
People in corridors.
Late-night visitors.
Kitchen deliveries.
Arguments behind closed doors.
She had spent months training herself not to notice.
Now she had to do the opposite.
“Three nights ago,” she said slowly, “I saw Dr. Kessler outside the west pantry.”
Kessler’s face changed.
“What?”
Norah looked at him.
“You were speaking to someone.”
“That is ridiculous.”
“You said, ‘The dosage isn’t the problem.’”
Silence.
Kessler stepped forward.
“I was discussing medication.”
“With whom?”
He did not answer quickly enough.
Norah felt every person in the room notice.
Then Kessler said, “A nurse.”
“Which nurse?”
“I don’t remember.”
Marcus asked, “Was it Angela?”
Kessler looked irritated.
“I speak to dozens of medical staff.”
Norah shook her head.
“It wasn’t a woman.”
Kessler’s face went pale.
Gideon stared at him.
“Who was it?”
“I don’t know what she heard.”
Norah’s voice remained quiet.
“I heard the other man say, ‘Adrian wants this finished before Friday.’”
No one moved.
Marcus’s eyes became hard.
Kessler looked at Norah with something that was no longer annoyance.
It was fear.
Gideon’s voice lowered.
“Doctor.”
Kessler shook his head.
“This is insane.”
“Then tell me who you were talking to.”
“I have confidentiality obligations.”
Gideon almost smiled.
“You think this is a hospital?”
Dr. Hart stepped between them.
“Gideon, stress is dangerous right now.”
He ignored her.
“Kessler.”
The doctor looked toward Marcus.
Then toward the guards.
Norah saw the moment he decided to speak.
“I met with Adrian.”
The room seemed to contract.
Gideon stared at him.
“Why?”
“He asked about your prognosis.”
“You already gave him that.”
“He wanted detail.”
“What detail?”
“How quickly your condition might become irreversible.”
Norah felt sick.
Gideon did not visibly react.
“And what did you tell him?”
“That your kidneys were failing faster than expected.”
“Did you know why?”
“No.”
“Did you take money from him?”
Kessler looked insulted.
“No.”
Norah watched his hands.
They were trembling.
Gideon noticed too.
“You’re lying.”
Kessler stepped backward.
“No.”
Marcus moved between him and the door.
“Kessler.”
The doctor’s voice rose.
“I did not poison him.”
Nobody had accused him of that.
The sentence hung in the air.
Gideon whispered, “Interesting choice of words.”
Kessler’s mouth opened.
Then the lights went out.
The chandelier vanished.
The monitor switched to backup power.
Someone shouted.
Norah heard a crash.
Then footsteps.
Fast.
When emergency lights flickered on, Dr. Kessler was running toward the service door.
Marcus tackled him before he reached it.
The doctor hit the floor hard.
A small object slid from his coat.
A syringe.
Dr. Hart stared at it.
“What is that?”
Kessler struggled.
“I can explain.”
Marcus grabbed the syringe through a cloth.
“What’s inside?”
Kessler stopped moving.
Norah looked toward Gideon.
His eyes were open.
Cold.
Marcus repeated the question.
“What’s inside?”
Kessler finally whispered, “Potassium.”
Dr. Hart’s face changed.
A concentrated potassium injection into an already unstable patient could stop the heart.
Gideon understood.
“So you were going to finish it.”
“No.”
“You ran with a syringe.”
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
Kessler looked toward Norah.
She knew before he spoke that something was wrong.
“They have my daughter.”
The words silenced the room.
Marcus loosened his hold slightly.
“Who?”
Kessler’s voice broke.
“I don’t know.”
Gideon said, “You just said Adrian.”
“He contacted me first, but then someone else took over.”
“Who?”
“I never saw his face.”
Norah thought of the man on the service camera.
Kessler continued.
“They sent me photographs of my daughter leaving school. They knew her schedule. Her address. Everything.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
Kessler laughed bitterly.
“Because everyone says you’re the monster.”
Gideon stared at him.
“And yet you nearly murdered me for people you trusted more.”
Kessler lowered his eyes.
“I changed one supplement dose.”
Dr. Hart inhaled sharply.
“You did what?”
“I was told it would only make him weaker.”
“How many times?”
“Three.”
Norah spoke.
“Then who changed the drink today?”
Kessler looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
That meant there were at least two people involved.
Possibly more.
Gideon looked toward Marcus.
“Find his daughter.”
Marcus nodded.
“Alive if possible?”
Gideon’s eyes hardened.
“Alive.”
For the next hour, the estate became an investigation center.
Kessler was confined under guard.
Dr. Hart changed Gideon’s treatment completely.
The suspicious compounds were removed.
Fluids were adjusted.
For the first time in days, Gideon’s heartbeat settled into a steady rhythm.
Norah watched the monitor as though the numbers belonged to someone she loved.
She did not understand why.
Maybe because she had become part of this against her will.
Maybe because saving him had become the only way to save herself.
Marcus returned near noon.
“We found Angela’s phone.”
“Where?” Norah asked.
“In a storm drain three blocks from your apartment.”
“Messages?”
“Deleted.”
“Can you recover them?”
“We’re trying.”
Gideon looked at Marcus.
“And Adrian?”
“His plane never went to New York.”
A pause.
“Where did it go?”
“It didn’t leave.”
Gideon frowned.
Marcus continued.
“The aircraft is still in the private hangar.”
Norah felt uneasy.
“Then how did he leave?”
“No record.”
Gideon looked toward the ceiling.
His own brother had vanished from a locked-down security network.
That should have been impossible.
Unless someone inside security had helped him.
Norah looked toward Marcus.
He seemed to reach the same conclusion.
“Victor Hale,” they said almost simultaneously.
Victor was the head of technical security.
One of the five men who could erase camera footage.
Marcus grabbed his radio.
“Find Hale.”
A guard answered moments later.
“No response from his office.”
“Check his residence.”
Another pause.
“His car is still here.”
Marcus left immediately with two men.
Norah remained by Gideon’s bed.
He looked exhausted again.
“You should rest,” she said.
“Are you giving me orders now?”
“You told everyone I stay.”
“That doesn’t make you a doctor.”
“No.”
She glanced toward the glass that had started everything.
“But apparently it makes me useful.”
Gideon actually smiled.
Barely.
Then his expression faded.
“Why did you take this job?”
Norah blinked.
“Does it matter?”
“I asked.”
“My mother died.”
His expression changed.
“She was sick?”
“Cancer.”
“You owed money.”
It was not a question.
Norah nodded.
“And your father?”
“Gone.”
“Siblings?”
“One brother.”
“Name?”
“Eli.”
Gideon watched her carefully.
Norah suddenly understood.
“You’re checking whether they can threaten someone I love.”
“I’m making sure they haven’t already.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Eli is at school.”
“Where?”
“Baltimore.”
Gideon reached for the phone.
“Marcus.”
No answer.
He called another security officer.
“Send two men to find Eli Blake. Quietly.”
Norah stared at him.
“You think they’d go after him?”
“I think people who put a dead nurse in your apartment are not sentimental.”
Her hands became cold.
Twenty minutes later, Marcus returned.
His face told them something had gone wrong.
“Hale’s office is empty.”
“Search it.”
“We did.”
“And?”
Marcus held up a small flash drive.
“Found behind the server console.”
Gideon gestured for him to connect it.
The first files contained surveillance logs.
Names.
Times.
Copies of internal communications.
Then a single video appeared.
Victor Hale sat in front of the camera.
He looked terrified.
“If Gideon sees this,” he began, “it means I’m probably dead.”
Norah stepped closer.
Hale swallowed on the recording.
“I erased footage because they had my wife. But Adrian isn’t the one giving the orders.”
Gideon’s eyes narrowed.
Hale looked directly into the camera.
“The person running this has been inside Gideon’s circle longer than Adrian has.”
Static cut through the recording.
Then Hale said a name.
But the audio vanished.
Marcus cursed.
“Can we recover it?”
“Maybe.”
The video continued silently for several seconds.
Hale held up a piece of paper.
Four words were written on it.
CHECK THE WEST WING.
Norah looked toward Gideon.
The west wing had been closed for six years.
Nobody entered it.
Not even housekeeping.
Marcus picked up his weapon.
“I’m going.”
Norah said, “I’m coming.”
“No.”
She looked at Gideon.
He studied her for a long moment.
Then nodded.
“Take her.”
Marcus looked surprised.
“Sir.”
“She notices things.”
They crossed the estate through corridors Norah had never been allowed to enter.
At the locked west-wing doors, Marcus entered a security code.
It failed.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Norah looked at the brass handle.
A faint red smear marked the underside.
She touched nothing.
“Someone was here recently.”
Marcus stared at the smear.
Blood.
One guard forced the lock.
The door opened.
The hallway beyond was dark.
At the far end, a phone began ringing.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Marcus raised his weapon.
Norah followed the sound.
The phone sat on the floor beneath a portrait.
Its screen displayed one incoming call.
ELI BLAKE.
Norah reached for it.
May you like
Before her fingers touched the screen, someone whispered from the darkness behind them:
“Don’t answer that.”
