Chapter 12 - The Hospital Room
I called Maya.
No answer.
I called Mom.
No answer.
Detective Bennett was already contacting hospital security.
We raced back.
Mom had not been abducted.
She was hiding in a locked medication room with Maya.
Two hospital staff members had attempted to transfer her downstairs after receiving what appeared to be a legitimate court order.
Maya recognized the man escorting them.
He had been in one of the storage-unit photographs.
She pulled the fire alarm and forced Mom into the nearest secure room.
The man fled.
Hospital cameras captured his face.
His name was Travis Bell.
Former private investigator.
Longtime associate of Caleb Voss.
For the first time, Caleb stopped pretending he knew nothing.
Faced with evidence, he admitted Chloe had recruited Bell weeks earlier.
But Caleb gave us something more useful.
“She has another location.”
“Where?”
He refused to answer until prosecutors guaranteed they would consider a reduced sentence.
Bennett left the interview room.
Ten minutes later, she returned with paperwork.
Caleb talked.
A farmhouse outside Cedar Ridge.
Registered to a shell company.
Chloe and Caleb had used it to store files and meet clients.
Police searched it before dawn.
Chloe was gone.
But they found medication records.
Forged physician stamps.
Blank guardianship forms.
And a wall covered in photographs.
Not just our family.
At least nine elderly people.
Some were from the files in the storage unit.
Some had already died.
Detective Bennett called federal investigators.
The case exploded.
Financial fraud.
Identity fraud.
Forgery.
Elder abuse.
Conspiracy.
Potential interstate crimes.
Chloe had spent years helping Caleb identify wealthy vulnerable targets.
Sometimes they used relatives.
Sometimes caregivers.
Sometimes fake romantic partners.
I was different.
I wasn’t elderly.
I was access.
Caleb had sent his daughter into my life because my father had once destroyed his most profitable operation.
Chloe had turned revenge into something even bigger.
She wanted Dad’s patents.
At the farmhouse, investigators found one unopened package addressed to Chloe.
Inside was a new passport.
Name.
Charlotte Hale.
There was also a plane reservation.
Departure Friday night.
Destination.
Buenos Aires.
The flight had already left.
Passenger records showed Charlotte Hale had boarded.
For several hours, everyone believed Chloe was gone.
Then immigration officers reviewed airport footage.
The woman using the passport was not Chloe.
It was someone wearing a wig and carrying Chloe’s coat.
A decoy.
Chloe was still in the country.
Nathan looked through the photographs recovered from the farmhouse.
Then he stopped.
One picture showed our house.
Taken from the back garden.
Another showed my office.
Another showed Maya’s apartment.
The final photograph showed Nathan leaving his law firm.
A date was written below it.
Tomorrow.
And beside his photograph were two words.
May you like
LAST PROBLEM.
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