Chapter 2: The Hospital Room
By midnight, St. Jude’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit was dead silent except for the rhythmic, reassuring beep of Lily’s heart monitor. The toxicology report had come back positive for a heavy dose of Rohypnol—the "date rape" drug.
Mark sat in a vinyl chair by the window, his head in his hands. "The police think she wandered out of the house while sleepwalking, found the candy or the pill on the ground, took it, and crawled into the dumpster to hide, Sarah. They think it's a freak accident."
"A freak accident?" Sarah's voice was a harsh whisper, laced with maternal fury. She looked down at the plastic evidence bag sitting on the bedside table. Inside it was the gold bracelet, glowing under the harsh fluorescent lights. "Seven-year-olds don't sleepwalk into zipped trash bags, Mark. And they certainly don't wake up wearing half a million dollars worth of custom jewelry."
She picked up her phone. Earlier that afternoon, she had taken a picture of the bracelet's inner band, capturing a tiny, engraved serial number. She had sent it to a friend who worked at a high-end auction house in Manhattan.
May you like
Her phone buzzed. A text message appeared.
Sarah, that piece belongs to a private estate collection. It was reported stolen three days ago from the vault of Apex Logistics—a shipping firm in the city. The lead accountant on the case is someone named Evelyn Vance.
