Chapter 16 - The Doctor’s Secret
Dr. Reed’s daughter, Claire, remembered the night immediately.
“My father came home after midnight.”
She said he was frightened.
He told her a woman had been brought to his office with injuries and begged him not to call anyone except her husband.
That woman was Laura.
My knees weakened.
“She made it there?”
“Yes.”
“Was Natalie with her?”
Claire nodded.
“Natalie brought her.”
For one moment, the world became painfully complicated.
The same woman who had hurt my children had once helped their mother escape.
Claire continued.
“My father called your house.”
I stared at her.
“I never got a call.”
“A man answered.”
“Who?”
“He said he was Daniel Brooks.”
My blood went cold.
Peter knew my schedules.
My house.
My office.
My life.
“Dad said the man told him not to contact police.
He said Laura had a history of instability and that you were sending someone to collect her.”
“Peter.”
Claire nodded.
“My father realized something was wrong when Laura heard the name of the person coming.”
“What did she do?”
“She panicked.”
Before Dr. Reed could move her, two men arrived.
One was Peter.
The other was a private security contractor.
Dr. Reed tried to stop them.
Peter threatened his medical license and family.
Laura was taken.
“Why didn’t your father report this?”
“He did.”
Claire opened an old filing cabinet.
She removed a copy of a police complaint.
It had been submitted the next morning.
The receiving officer had marked it unfounded.
The officer’s name was Detective Carl Benson.
Ruiz recognized it immediately.
Benson had been one of the officers assigned to Laura’s original accident.
He had retired six months later.
A forensic review of Benson’s finances revealed a payment of ninety thousand dollars from a company tied to Peter.
Now the conspiracy had a police connection.
But Claire had one final piece of information.
“My father wrote down the license plate of the vehicle.”
Ruiz ran it.
The SUV had later been sold.
But four years ago, it belonged to a private crematorium outside the city.
May you like
I stared at the screen.
For the first time, I understood how someone could make a living woman disappear without ever producing a body.
