Chapter 3 - The Message Anne Never Sent
Matthew read Anne's sentence until the words stopped looking like handwriting and became an accusation.
If Matthew ever finds us, tell him I tried.
Sarah sat beside him with the cardboard box pressed between her knees.
"What does it say?"
Matthew looked at Maya.
The social worker gave him a warning glance.
He chose the truth, but not all of it.
"It says your mom wanted me to know she tried to reach me."
Sarah considered that.
"Did she?"
"I never knew."
The answer sounded pathetic even to him.
Sarah touched the edge of the photograph.
"Mommy says not knowing does not make something not true."
Matthew swallowed.
"Your mom says a lot of things I should have listened to years ago."
A nurse returned with Sarah's missing shoe in a clear plastic bag.
It had been found near the ambulance bay after falling from the stretcher.
Sarah put it on without caring that it was still damp.
Matthew watched her tie the laces twice because her fingers were shaking.
He wanted to help.
He also understood that she needed to do something by herself.
Maya sat across from him.
"Mr. Sullivan, hospital security told me about the man in the gray suit."
"My family's security company issued his badge."
"Does that make sense to you?"
"No."
"Does it frighten you?"
Matthew looked toward the intensive care doors.
"Yes."
Maya nodded.
"Good."
He frowned.
"Good?"
"Fear is useful when powerful people are used to assuming nothing can reach them."
Matthew almost objected.
Then he realized she was right.
He called his own personal security director, Evan Price.
Evan had worked for Matthew since the year after Anne disappeared.
He answered immediately.
"Mr. Sullivan."
"I need two people at Mercy General now."
"Already on the way."
Matthew paused.
"How did you know I was here?"
There was a tiny hesitation.
"Your assistant told me the board meeting was canceled."
"That does not answer the question."
"Your driver logged the destination."
Matthew looked at the hospital entrance through the glass.
His driver had dropped him at a private clinic two blocks away for a scheduled donor meeting.
He had walked to Mercy General after the clinic director asked him to tour a pediatric project.
No Sullivan driver had brought him here.
"I did not use the car to come here."
Silence.
"Then I must have misunderstood the location update."
Matthew's pulse slowed instead of quickening.
That was what happened when he sensed danger.
His mind became cold.
"Send the two people."
"Of course."
Matthew ended the call.
Maya had heard enough to understand.
"You do not trust him."
"I trusted him until thirty seconds ago."
Sarah looked up.
"Is he bad?"
Matthew crouched beside her.
"I do not know."
"You say that a lot."
"Today I deserve to."
Sarah stared at him, then accepted the answer.
Dr. Kline returned near noon.
His face was tired, and there was a faint line from his mask pressed into his skin.
"Anne is stable enough for the intensive care unit."
Sarah stood.
"Stable means good?"
"Stable means she is not getting worse right now."
"That is not the same as good."
"No."
Dr. Kline gave her the same honesty she demanded from everyone else.
"But it is better than where we were three hours ago."
Sarah nodded once.
Matthew stepped closer.
"When will she wake up?"
"We are keeping her sedated for now."
"How long?"
"Possibly tonight."
Dr. Kline looked at him carefully.
"Possibly tomorrow."
Sarah's face tightened again.
Matthew changed the subject before fear swallowed her.
"Can she keep something in the room?"
He nodded toward the box.
Dr. Kline smiled faintly.
"One doll."
Sarah immediately chose Luna.
She hugged the rag doll to her chest.
"Mommy made her."
"Then Luna gets special clearance."
Sarah followed Maya toward the intensive care unit.
Matthew remained behind with Dr. Kline.
"Doctor, did Anne have a phone when she arrived?"
"Personal property handles that."
"I need to know whether the police have it."
Dr. Kline's expression sharpened.
"Why?"
Matthew showed him the photograph with Anne's message.
Then he explained the man in the gray suit.
Dr. Kline listened without interrupting.
"I will call hospital security and make sure no property is released except to Anne or law enforcement."
"Thank you."
"And Mr. Sullivan?"
Matthew stopped.
"Do not turn my ICU into a family battlefield."
"I do not intend to."
"People with money often intend one thing and create another."
Matthew accepted that without argument.
"Then tell me when I cross the line."
Dr. Kline's expression softened by one degree.
"I will."
Two police officers arrived twenty minutes later to take a statement from Sarah about the collision.
A detective named Marcus Bell came with them.
He wore a rain-darkened coat and carried a notebook instead of a tablet.
He introduced himself to Sarah first.
"I am Marcus."
"Are you police?"
"Yes."
"Then why do you not have a uniform?"
"Because I am terrible at ironing."
Sarah stared at him.
Then, despite herself, she smiled.
Bell sat on the floor instead of pulling her toward a desk.
Matthew watched from several feet away with Maya.
"Tell me only what you remember," Bell said.
Sarah hugged the cardboard box.
"We were going to the bus stop."
"What color was the light?"
"White walking person."
"Good."
"Mommy held my hand."
Sarah's fingers flexed around the cardboard.
"Then she looked left."
Bell waited.
"The car was black."
"Did it come from the left?"
"Yes."
"Was it moving fast?"
Sarah's eyebrows pulled together.
"It was stopped first."
Matthew felt something tighten in his chest.
Bell's pen stopped.
"Stopped where?"
"Near the corner."
"Then what happened?"
"It moved when we moved."
Bell looked up.
"Are you sure?"
Sarah nodded.
"Mommy squeezed my hand."
Her voice became smaller.
"Then she threw me."
Bell did not correct the word.
"What happened after the car hit her?"
"It stopped again."
Matthew looked at Bell.
The detective's face had changed.
"Did the driver get out?"
Sarah shook her head.
"The back window came down."
"Did you see anyone?"
"A man."
"Can you describe him?"
Sarah looked toward the hallway.
Her whole body stiffened.
Matthew turned.
No one was there except a nurse pushing a medication cart.
Sarah lowered her voice.
"He had gray hair here."
She touched both sides of her head above the ears.
"And a ring with a black square."
Bell wrote it down.
Matthew knew a man who wore a black onyx signet ring almost every day.
Richard Sullivan.
He said nothing.
Not yet.
Bell asked Sarah whether the man in the car was Richard.
Matthew was surprised.
"Why would you ask that?"
Bell looked at him.
"Because your face answered before your mouth did."
Sarah looked between them.
"Who is Richard?"
Matthew chose his words carefully.
"My uncle."
Sarah's eyes widened.
"Is he the bad man?"
"I do not know."
"Again."
"Again."
Bell closed his notebook.
"I need to find traffic cameras before we make accusations."
Matthew nodded.
"You will have whatever resources you need."
Bell's expression hardened.
"No."
Matthew blinked.
"No?"
"I will have police resources."
He stood.
"Your money does not get to touch my evidence."
Matthew respected him immediately.
"Understood."
Bell walked away to speak with hospital security.
Maya escorted Sarah back toward the ICU.
Matthew's assistant, Nina Park, arrived carrying a laptop and looking furious.
"You canceled a nine-figure financing meeting by text."
"Yes."
"Your mother called me eleven times."
"Block her for the next hour."
Nina stared at him.
"That sentence has never left your mouth before."
"Today is full of firsts."
He told her about Anne.
He told her about Sarah.
He did not tell her what he suspected about Richard.
Nina's anger disappeared.
"What do you need?"
"Find every financial record from six years ago involving Anne Miller."
"Personal or corporate?"
"Both."
"That could take time."
"Start with any payment near two million dollars."
Nina nodded.
"Anything else?"
"Find out who issued a Sullivan Protective Services temporary badge this morning."
Her face changed.
"Why?"
"Because the man wearing it was watching Sarah's ICU doors."
Nina opened the laptop immediately.
Matthew walked to the vending machines and bought Sarah crackers, apple juice, and a bottle of water.
When he returned, he found a uniformed officer holding a plastic evidence bag.
Inside was a phone with a shattered screen.
"This was recovered from the accident scene," Detective Bell said.
Matthew stopped.
"Anne's?"
"Sarah identified the case."
Sarah sat beside him, eating one cracker at a time.
Bell held up the bag.
"The screen is damaged, but the device still powers on."
"Then why are you showing me?"
"Because there is an emergency contact visible without unlocking it."
Bell turned the phone.
The cracked screen displayed a medical ID page.
Emergency Contact: Matthew Sullivan.
Matthew stared.
His old personal number was still listed beneath the name.
He had changed it four years earlier.
Sarah looked at him.
"Mommy put you there?"
Matthew nodded slowly.
"A long time ago."
Bell placed the phone back in the bag.
"There is more."
"What?"
"When the technician connected it to power, a draft notification appeared."
Bell looked at Matthew with the expression of a man who disliked what he was about to say.
"It was an unsent email addressed to you."
Matthew's skin went cold.
"Can you read it?"
"The preview shows only the first line."
Bell turned the screen again.
Matthew leaned closer.
The draft began with six words.
Matthew, if anything happens to me...
Bell scrolled the visible preview one line farther.
The next sentence made Matthew forget the entire hallway around him.
May you like
Richard knows the truth about Sarah.
