Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN IN ROOM SEVENTEEN
Vincent reached the ballroom faster than Grace.
The guards outside opened the doors.
Isabella sat exactly where they had left her.
Emily was beside her, drawing on the back of an unused menu card with a ballroom pencil.
Both looked up.
Vincent placed a printed transport sheet on the table.
"Explain this."
Isabella read it.
Her face lost color.
"I have never seen this before."
"Your name is on it."
"That is not my signature."
"It says family contact approved."
"I did not approve anything."
Vincent pointed at the date.
"Fourteen months ago, someone moved Patient Seventeen from Maple House to River Site B and used your name."
Emily stopped drawing.
Grace reached her and gently turned the paper face down.
"Sweetheart, go sit by the fireplace with Marco's guard."
Emily frowned.
"But I am helping."
"Right now you help by staying where I can see you."
Emily reluctantly moved to the fireplace.
Isabella looked at Vincent.
"Patient Seventeen is Sofia."
"Yes."
"And Celeste signed the transfer."
"Yes."
Isabella pressed both hands to the table.
"Celeste was supposed to be dead by then."
Vincent watched her closely.
"When did Charles tell you she died?"
"Seventeen months ago."
"So three months before this transfer."
"Yes."
"How?"
"He said there had been a climbing accident near Zermatt."
"Did he show you documents?"
"A death certificate."
Marco entered behind them.
"Swiss death certificates can be verified."
Isabella laughed bitterly.
"I did not think I needed to verify my sister's death through a database."
Vincent's face softened by a fraction.
"No."
"You should not have."
Isabella looked at the transport sheet again.
"What is River Site B?"
Dominic answered from the doorway.
Everyone turned.
He had come down from the guest room where a guard had been assigned to watch him.
Vincent's eyes hardened.
"Who let you out?"
"The guard came with me."
A security man appeared behind him.
Dominic looked at the document.
"River Site B was an old Moretti shipping property."
Vincent frowned.
"Which one?"
"I do not know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"There were four river sites."
Dominic stepped closer.
"A through D were insurance labels after the old company split."
Marco asked the question Vincent did not want to ask.
"Why did you sign Sofia's second transfer six months after she vanished?"
Dominic went silent.
Vincent stared at him.
"Daniel's files show your signature."
"I know."
"You knew she was alive for six months."
Dominic looked toward Emily by the fireplace.
"Can we do this somewhere else?"
Vincent's answer was immediate.
"No."
Grace looked at him sharply.
"Vincent."
He heard the warning in her voice.
After a long moment, he nodded toward Marco.
"Take Emily to the morning room with two guards."
Grace started to go with her.
Vincent stopped her gently.
"I need you here."
Grace looked at Emily.
Isabella stood.
"I will go with her."
Vincent shook his head.
"You stay too."
Emily walked out with the guards, looking furious at every adult in the room.
When the doors closed, Vincent turned back to Dominic.
"Talk."
Dominic lowered his head.
"Six months after Sofia disappeared, Charles called me."
"Again."
"Yes."
"What did he want?"
"He said the first facility could no longer manage her safely."
Vincent's face tightened.
"Did you see her?"
Dominic hesitated.
"Yes."
Grace whispered a curse.
Vincent's voice almost disappeared.
"You saw my wife alive."
"Yes."
"And you came back to this house."
Dominic swallowed.
"Yes."
"You sat at my table."
"Yes."
"You watched me tear her portrait off the staircase because I thought she had abandoned me."
Dominic's face twisted.
"I know."
"You watched me drink myself unconscious on our anniversary."
"I know."
"And you knew."
Dominic looked up.
"I thought she was sick."
Vincent crossed the room and struck him once.
It was fast, controlled, and hard enough to send Dominic against the edge of a chair.
Grace flinched but did not intervene.
Dominic straightened slowly and wiped blood from his lip.
"I deserved that."
Vincent's hands shook.
"Do not tell me what you deserve."
Dominic nodded.
"Charles took me to Saint Agnes."
"Why you?"
"He said the doctors needed a family witness because you were too emotionally involved."
Vincent laughed in disbelief.
"And you accepted that."
"I was still afraid of what he had on me."
"A dead child from a truck crash."
Dominic closed his eyes.
"Yes."
"So you traded Sofia for your reputation."
Dominic looked at him.
"I told myself I was protecting the company, the family, everyone employed by us."
"Cowards always build big reasons for small choices."
Dominic accepted that too.
Grace looked at him.
"How did Sofia look?"
Dominic's gaze shifted to her.
"Drugged."
Vincent went still.
"What?"
"She knew who I was, but she could barely keep her eyes open."
"What did she say?"
Dominic breathed out.
"She asked if Vincent knew where she was."
The room became painfully quiet.
Vincent looked away.
Dominic continued.
"I told her yes."
Vincent turned back so sharply that Isabella stepped away.
"You told her I knew?"
"Charles had shown me your signed authorization."
"You told my wife I put her there."
"I believed you had."
Vincent grabbed the back of a chair instead of Dominic.
The wood creaked beneath his hand.
"What happened next?"
"She stopped speaking to me."
"And you signed the transfer."
"Yes."
"To Maple House."
"Yes."
"Where is it?"
Dominic looked toward Marco.
"Vermont."
"Near Saint Agnes."
"About forty minutes north."
Marco was already searching property records.
A map appeared.
MAPLE HOUSE was not listed under that name.
But Harbor Light Health Services had owned a private residence in Lowell, Vermont, through a subsidiary.
The property sold six months earlier.
Vincent pointed at the screen.
"We go now."
Marco shook his head.
"It is almost six hours by car in winter weather."
"Then get the helicopter."
"Wind advisory."
"Jet."
"Nearest airport still leaves ninety minutes on the ground."
Vincent's jaw tightened.
"Make it happen."
Marco nodded.
"I will take four men."
Grace stood.
"I am going."
Vincent shook his head.
"Emily needs you."
"Emily needs to know I did not stay silent again."
"Grace."
"Daniel died because he kept looking."
Her voice did not rise.
"Sofia trusted me because she believed I would eventually be brave enough to do the same."
Vincent held her gaze.
Then he nodded once.
"You come."
Isabella stepped forward.
"So do I."
"No."
"Celeste is part of this."
"That is exactly why you stay."
Isabella's expression hardened.
"You still think I could be involved."
"I think your name is on a transfer document moving my missing wife."
"My forged name."
"We do not know that yet."
Isabella looked hurt, then angry.
"Fine."
"But bring me something back."
Vincent frowned.
"What?"
"The truth about my sister."
They left before sunset.
Emily stayed at the estate under the protection of Marco's deputy and three additional guards.
Isabella remained with her in the morning room.
Dominic was not invited on the trip.
Vincent ordered him confined to a guest suite until they returned.
Dominic did not argue.
The chartered jet reached Burlington after dark.
From there, two unmarked SUVs drove north through snow that thickened with every mile.
Grace sat beside Vincent in the second vehicle.
For almost an hour neither spoke.
Then Grace said, "You believed she left you."
Vincent looked out at the road.
"I believed the evidence."
"That is not what I asked."
He was quiet for a long time.
"At first, no."
"Then?"
"Then every person I trusted told me the same story."
Grace looked at him.
"Sometimes a lie becomes convincing because it has enough witnesses."
Vincent gave a bitter smile.
"Especially when you pay the witnesses."
Grace looked down at her hands.
"I was one of them."
"No."
"My silence helped."
"Your daughter was threatened."
"Daniel's daughter too."
Vincent looked at her.
Grace's voice remained steady.
"He chose differently."
The vehicles turned onto a narrow road lined with dark pines.
A weathered mailbox appeared through the snow.
No number.
No name.
Marco's lead vehicle stopped at a locked gate.
The property beyond was dark.
Vincent looked at the old house visible between the trees.
"Maple House."
Marco's men cut the chain.
They entered with flashlights and body armor.
The house smelled of mildew and disinfectant.
Most rooms were empty.
Metal bed frames remained in two upstairs bedrooms.
One door had a number painted on it.
17.
Grace stopped.
Vincent opened it.
The room contained a narrow bed, a wooden chair, and a small dresser bolted to the wall.
Someone had scratched lines into the paint beside the window.
Hundreds of them.
Vincent touched one with his fingertip.
Grace opened the dresser.
Empty.
Marco searched beneath the bed.
Nothing.
Then Grace noticed a loose strip of wallpaper near the baseboard.
She pulled it back.
Words had been written directly on the plaster.
Not random words.
A message.
VINCENT DOES NOT KNOW.
Beneath it, in smaller handwriting, came another line.
DOMINIC DOES.
Vincent stared at the wall.
Then Marco called from the hallway.
"We found a resident log."
The ledger had been hidden inside a locked office cabinet.
Most pages were missing.
One remained.
Patient 17 had been listed under the name Sarah Vale.
Her final entry was dated fourteen months ago.
TRANSFER AUTHORIZED BY FAMILY CONTACT.
Destination: RIVER SITE B.
Grace turned the page.
On the back, someone had written a telephone number in pencil.
Marco dialed it from a secure phone.
The line rang once.
Twice.
Then someone answered.
No one spoke.
Marco put it on speaker.
A woman's breathing came through the line.
Vincent's face changed.
"Sofia?"
The breathing stopped.
Then a woman whispered one sentence.
May you like
"If Dominic is with you, run."
The line went dead.
