Chapter 4: Dr. Vale’s Secret
Chapter 4: Dr. Vale’s Secret
Maya had seen Dr. Samuel Vale for six months after Oliver was born.
The delivery had been difficult.
She suffered from exhaustion, anxiety, and recurring nightmares that Oliver would stop breathing while she slept.
Dr. Vale had helped her recover.
According to Maya, their sessions ended more than two years earlier.
Yet the photograph in Evelyn’s folder placed him near Maya six months ago.
And the hidden-camera image placed him inside the nursery.
Detective Ortiz located his private office downtown.
When Ryan and Maya arrived with her the next morning, the waiting room was empty.
The receptionist’s desk had been cleared.
Files were missing from the cabinets.
Dr. Vale was gone.
“He canceled all appointments yesterday,” the building manager said. “Said there was a family emergency.”
Ortiz searched the office with a warrant.
In a locked cabinet, officers found copies of Maya’s confidential treatment records.
Some were real.
Others had been altered.
Statements about ordinary anxiety had been changed into descriptions of violent impulses.
A note reading patient fears losing control had originally said patient fears that lack of sleep will affect her concentration.
Ryan read the pages with growing horror.
Someone had rewritten Maya’s medical history.
Ortiz found bank records in the desk.
For three years, Vale had received monthly payments from an organization called the Whitmore Family Wellness Initiative.
The foundation was controlled by Evelyn.
Maya sat down slowly.
“She paid my doctor.”
Ryan looked at the records.
“She paid him before you stopped seeing him.”
It meant Vale had been working for Evelyn while he treated Maya.
Her most private fears had been reported to the woman who despised her.
Ortiz received a call from another officer.
She listened silently, then stepped into the hallway.
When she returned, her expression had changed.
“Dr. Vale’s car was found near the East River.”
“Was he inside?” Ryan asked.
“No.”
His wallet and phone had been left on the driver’s seat.
A note was found beneath the windshield wiper.
It claimed that Vale had falsified the records alone.
It apologized to Evelyn for deceiving her.
Ryan did not believe a word of it.
Neither did Ortiz.
Vale was either running from Evelyn or protecting her.
Before leaving the office, Maya noticed a small framed photograph on a bookshelf.
It showed Dr. Vale at a hospital fundraiser.
Evelyn stood beside him.
Behind them was a younger woman with red hair.
Maya picked up the frame.
“I know her.”
Ryan stared at the woman.
She was Evelyn’s former personal assistant, Grace Holloway.
Grace had disappeared from the Whitmore household four years earlier.
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Evelyn had claimed she stole money.
No one had ever seen her again.
