Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO HAD ALREADY BEEN DECLARED DEAD
Paramedics arrived within minutes.
Claire was lifted from the coffin onto a stretcher while Ethan refused to release her hand.
Her pulse was dangerously slow.
Her breathing was shallow.
There were small adhesive marks along her left arm and bruising near the inside of her elbow.
A paramedic looked at the marks and immediately asked what medications she had been given.
Claire could not answer.
Her eyes kept closing.
Richard, meanwhile, was placed in handcuffs near the entrance.
He had stopped fighting.
That frightened Ethan almost more than the gun had.
Richard simply watched.
Calmly.
As though he believed this was only a temporary problem.
Detective Lena Ortiz arrived before the ambulance left.
She was in her forties, with dark hair tied behind her head and the quiet expression of someone who listened before deciding what mattered.
She crouched beside Ethan.
“I’m Detective Ortiz.”
Ethan looked toward Richard.
“He knew she was alive.”
Ortiz followed his stare.
“What makes you certain?”
“When I told him I heard knocking, he didn’t check.”
Ethan swallowed.
“He told me never to say it again.”
Ortiz’s expression hardened.
“Did anybody else hear him?”
“No.”
“Did he touch the coffin after you told him?”
“No.”
That answer seemed to matter.
Ortiz stood.
“Stay with your aunt until I come speak to you at the hospital.”
Ethan’s aunt Megan Parker had arrived moments after the gunshot.
She pulled him into her arms.
Megan was Claire’s younger sister and had never trusted Richard completely.
Until that day, she had believed that distrust was simply personal dislike.
Now she stared at him as officers led him outside.
“You monster.”
Richard paused.
Then he looked directly at Ethan.
“You have no idea what your mother did.”
Ortiz stepped between them.
“Keep walking.”
At St. Matthew’s Hospital, doctors rushed Claire into emergency treatment.
Blood tests revealed a powerful sedative in her system.
There was also evidence that she had been severely dehydrated before being placed inside the coffin.
Most disturbing of all was the paperwork.
Claire Parker had been legally pronounced dead nearly thirty-six hours earlier.
A signed death certificate listed sudden cardiac arrest.
The physician named on it was Dr. Nolan Vale.
The funeral home had received instructions for an expedited closed-casket service.
No embalming.
No public viewing.
Burial immediately after the ceremony.
Every detail had been arranged to prevent anyone from seeing Claire.
If Ethan had not broken the coffin open, she would have been underground before noon.
Detective Ortiz examined the documents twice.
Then she called another officer over.
“Get a warrant for Dr. Vale’s office.”
Megan stood beside Ethan in the hospital hallway.
“Do you know him?”
Ethan nodded slowly.
“Dr. Vale came to our house.”
“When?”
“A lot.”
Megan went still.
Before she could ask another question, the doors to Claire’s treatment room opened.
A doctor stepped out.
“She’s conscious for now.”
Ethan hurried inside.
Claire looked smaller beneath the hospital blankets.
He took her hand.
“Mom.”
She squeezed his fingers.
“I need you to listen.”
Her eyes moved toward Megan.
Then toward Detective Ortiz.
“There’s a blue folder.”
Ortiz stepped closer.
“Where?”
Claire struggled to stay awake.
“In the house.”
Richard’s house.
Ethan leaned forward.
“Where in the house?”
Claire whispered two words.
“Your piano.”
Then her eyes closed again.
May you like
But before the sedative dragged her under, she added one final warning.
“Don’t trust the doctor.”
