Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Ran
“Evelyn!”
Nothing.
I called back.
The number was unavailable.
Adrian was already shouting instructions to Marcus.
“Trace it.”
“Working.”
“Now.”
“The number’s masked.”
“Then unmask it.”
Marcus hurried toward the security station.
Detective Ortiz was notified.
State police began searching traffic cameras.
But all I could hear was that unfamiliar male voice.
You should have kept quiet.
I stayed beside Noah because I refused to leave him.
Adrian paced the hallway.
Dr. Chen returned with more results.
The drug in Noah’s blood was not ordinary prescription stock.
It was an experimental cardiac compound.
Manufactured in controlled batches.
Samuel Kline had participated in the clinical research program developing it.
My stomach tightened.
“But Evelyn said he didn’t do it.”
Ortiz sat opposite me.
“People lie when they’re afraid.”
“She sounded afraid because someone was with her.”
“We’re investigating that.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“Who had access to the drug?”
Ortiz consulted her notes.
“Dr. Kline. Four researchers. Hospital pharmacy personnel. Lab technicians.”
“And?”
She looked at him.
“Your company.”
Adrian stopped moving.
“What?”
Cole Meridian Logistics transported temperature-sensitive research samples for several Boston medical laboratories.
I knew that.
I had never connected it to Samuel.
“One shipment moved through your biomedical division last month,” Ortiz said.
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“How many employees had access?”
“We’re getting names.”
“Marcus can give them to you.”
“We already requested them.”
I looked between them.
“Does somebody think Adrian did this?”
Ortiz answered carefully.
“We think whoever did it had access to your child and the medication.”
“That describes half our lives.”
“Exactly.”
At 9:20 a.m., Noah opened his eyes.
Only for a moment.
But he looked at me.
I laughed and cried at the same time.
“There you are.”
His fingers curled weakly around mine.
Adrian turned away because he didn’t want anyone to see him break.
Dr. Chen smiled.
“That’s encouraging.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
“We’re moving in the right direction.”
It was the first hopeful sentence anyone had given me.
I repeated it silently for the next hour.
Then Samuel arrived with an attorney.
Adrian met him in a private consultation room.
I insisted on being there.
Ortiz watched from the corner.
Samuel looked furious.
“You think I poisoned my godson?”
“You lied about being at my house,” Adrian replied.
“I didn’t lie.”
“You said someone called you.”
“Someone did.”
“Before Noah collapsed?”
Samuel placed his phone on the table.
“10:42 p.m. Unknown caller. They said Noah was having trouble breathing.”
Ortiz checked the device.
The call existed.
Samuel continued.
“I drove over. Evelyn met me downstairs.”
“What did she say?” I asked.
“That Noah had settled down.”
“You didn’t see him?”
“No.”
“You came all the way there and didn’t examine him?”
“Evelyn insisted you and Adrian were sleeping and said she had overreacted.”
I stared at him.
“Why would she do that?”
“I don’t know.”
“What about the vial?”
His eyes changed.
“What vial?”
I showed him the security image.
He leaned closer.
“That batch was stolen.”
The room went silent.
“When?” Ortiz asked.
“Four days ago.”
“Was it reported?”
“To research security.”
“Police?”
“No. They thought it was an inventory discrepancy.”
Adrian slammed his palm against the table.
“You lost experimental heart medication and didn’t tell anyone?”
“I didn’t know it was lost until yesterday.”
“You still didn’t tell me.”
“I had no reason to connect it to Noah.”
“You were at my house!”
“Because someone called me!”
I stood.
“Stop.”
Both men looked at me.
I turned to Samuel.
“Who knew you were coming?”
“No one.”
“Who knew your friendship with Adrian would make you the obvious suspect?”
Samuel’s anger disappeared.
He understood.
“Someone set this up.”
Ortiz nodded slightly.
“That’s one theory.”
Samuel sat down.
Then he said something I didn’t expect.
“Evelyn contacted me three weeks ago.”
“What?”
“She asked questions about Noah.”
“What questions?”
“His heart rate. Sleep patterns. Feeding issues.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She’s his nurse. Nothing sounded unusual.”
“Did anything sound unusual later?”
Samuel hesitated.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“She asked how quickly an infant would react to beta-blocking compounds.”
My blood ran cold.
Adrian leaned toward him.
“And you did nothing?”
“I asked why.”
“What did she say?”
“She claimed she was studying for a recertification exam.”
I wanted to hate Evelyn.
It would have been easier.
But then I remembered the bracelet.
The warning.
Her terrified voice.
I didn’t think she was planning to harm Noah.
I thought she was trying to understand something she had already seen.
At noon, police found Evelyn’s abandoned sedan near Gloucester.
No Evelyn.
No sign of struggle.
But her purse remained inside.
So did her wallet.
A piece of paper was tucked beneath the driver’s seat.
Ortiz brought us a photograph.
Six names.
Samuel Kline.
Evelyn Price.
Marcus Hale.
Rebecca Cole.
Thomas Avery.
And me.
I stared at the fourth name.
Rebecca Cole.
Adrian’s mother.
She lived in a guesthouse on our property.
She adored Noah.
At least I had thought she did.
“Why is my mother on this list?” Adrian asked.
Ortiz shook her head.
“We don’t know.”
I pointed at the fifth name.
“Thomas Avery?”
Adrian’s face changed.
I knew Thomas.
Everyone did.
He was Adrian’s chief financial officer.
His closest business associate after Marcus.
But there was something else.
Thomas had dated me before I met Adrian.
Only briefly.
Three months.
A decade ago.
Nobody talked about it anymore.
“Where is Thomas?” I asked.
Adrian pulled out his phone.
Thomas didn’t answer.
Marcus called his office.
No response.
His assistant hadn’t seen him since the previous afternoon.
Ortiz left to coordinate a search.
Adrian sat beside me.
“You okay?”
“No.”
Neither of us pretended otherwise.
I looked through the glass toward Noah.
“Why would someone do this?”
Adrian stared at the floor.
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
He looked up.
“Somebody wants something.”
His voice was quiet.
“That’s the only reason people attack me.”
“Money?”
“Control.”
“Of what?”
He didn’t answer.
I realized he was hiding something.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Claire—”
“What?”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“Cole Meridian has been negotiating a sale.”
I stared at him.
“You never told me.”
“It wasn’t final.”
“How much?”
“Three point eight billion.”
I almost laughed from disbelief.
“And who benefits if you don’t sign?”
“Several people.”
“Thomas?”
“He opposed the deal.”
“Your mother?”
“She owns twelve percent.”
“Marcus?”
“Stock options.”
“Me?”
“You inherit my shares.”
I looked at him.
“And Noah?”
Adrian’s eyes shifted toward our son.
“He inherits everything if we both die.”
My chest tightened.
Someone had not tried to kill Adrian.
Or me.
They had targeted the infant at the center of a multibillion-dollar inheritance structure.
But why?
That afternoon, Marcus retrieved a backup recording from a hidden nursery audio system.
At 10:31 p.m., while the main camera was covered, two voices could be heard.
Evelyn.
And another person.
The recording crackled.
Evelyn said, “You can’t keep doing this.”
A distorted voice replied, “It’s almost finished.”
Evelyn said, “He’s just a baby.”
The voice answered, “That baby is the only thing standing in the way.”
Adrian froze.
Marcus replayed it.
The voice was difficult to recognize.
But I recognized the phrase.
Standing in the way.
Thomas used it constantly.
In meetings.
In arguments.
In private conversations.
I looked at Adrian.
He had noticed too.
Then Marcus’s laptop chimed.
An encrypted email had reached Adrian’s private account.
Subject:
YOU WANT EVELYN ALIVE?
Inside was an address.
An abandoned coastal property north of Rockport.
One line followed.
COME WITHOUT POLICE.
Adrian stood.
“No.”
I grabbed his arm.
“You’re not going alone.”
“I’m not letting you anywhere near this.”
“She was protecting Noah.”
“We don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“Claire—”
“She left the warning.”
“Maybe.”
“She called me.”
“Maybe because they wanted you to come.”
I looked toward Noah.
Then back at my husband.
“We find the woman who knows who poisoned our son.”
Adrian knew there was no argument that would stop me.
Two hours later, Marcus drove us toward the coast while an unmarked police team followed several miles behind despite the message.
The address led to a weather-beaten house above the Atlantic.
The front door stood open.
Adrian went first.
Marcus behind him.
I followed.
Inside, a single lamp burned.
A chair stood in the center of the room.
Evelyn was tied to it.
Alive.
I ran toward her.
“Claire, stop!” she screamed.
I froze.
Evelyn looked past me.
Toward the staircase.
Her face drained of color.
“He’s here.”
A floorboard creaked above us.
Then a man's voice called down.
Not Thomas’s.
Not Samuel’s.
A voice I knew far better.
“Claire?”
May you like
My blood turned cold.
Because the man coming down the stairs was my father.
