Chapter 10 - Rebecca's Last Appointment
The photograph in Vincent's court filing had been taken through Lily's partially open bedroom door.
The angle was low.
The image captured Adrian in the chair, Claire asleep with Lily, and Adrian's hand around Claire's.
Nothing in the picture was inappropriate.
Everything about it could be made to look inappropriate by someone determined enough.
The caption in Vincent's filing called Claire an emotionally unstable employee whose relationship with Adrian had compromised household boundaries.
Claire read the phrase twice.
Then she put the document down before she tore it.
"Emotionally unstable."
Rachel Sloan closed her folder.
"Don't take the language personally."
Claire stared at her.
"How exactly would you recommend I take it?"
"Strategically."
"Somebody steals my identity, puts money in my bank account, fakes emails, photographs me inside a child's bedroom, and now I'm supposed to be strategic about being called unstable?"
Rachel's expression softened.
"Yes."
Claire laughed bitterly.
"That sounds exhausting."
"It is."
Adrian stood by the window, facing the plywood covering the shattered glass.
"When is the hearing?"
"Tomorrow at ten."
Claire turned.
"That fast?"
Rachel nodded.
"Emergency guardianship petitions move quickly when a child may be in danger."
Adrian's voice remained controlled.
"Lily is not going to Vincent."
"Then give me evidence instead of threats."
"He was at her school."
"We have footage."
"He used a false identity."
"Good."
"He manipulated her about Rebecca."
"Harder to prove, but useful."
"Someone connected to him entered my house with a sedative."
Rachel's eyes narrowed.
"Connected how?"
"Caleb Voss."
"I need more than a surname."
Marcus, who had returned after Adrian cooled enough to tolerate him, placed a file on the desk.
"Caleb's father worked for Vincent."
Rachel opened it.
"Still circumstantial."
Adrian's frustration sharpened.
"What exactly would satisfy you?"
"A witness, a money trail, direct communication, or something tying Vincent to the intrusion."
"And until then?"
"Until then, we make sure you don't look like the dangerous man his petition describes."
Claire almost smiled at the impossibility of that assignment.
Rachel looked at her.
"And we clear you."
"How?"
"We start with the five thousand dollars."
Marcus had already traced the payment to a Massachusetts LLC called North Harbor Consulting.
The company had been formed three months earlier.
Its registered agent was a corporate services firm in Delaware.
Its bank account had received one large incoming transfer before sending Claire the five thousand dollars.
The source of that transfer was Mercer Holdings.
Adrian stared at the report.
"Which department?"
Marcus answered, "Executive consulting reserve."
"Who can authorize it?"
"You, Julian, or me."
Claire looked at Marcus.
"Did you?"
"No."
She looked at Adrian.
"No."
Which left one name.
Julian Cross.
Rachel leaned forward.
"Do not confront him."
Adrian's expression suggested the opposite had already become his favorite plan.
"Why?"
"Because if he is involved, I want him confident enough to keep making mistakes."
Claire remembered Rebecca's note.
The most dangerous liar is still sitting at your table.
"What if the payment was designed to make us think it's Julian?"
Everyone looked at her.
Claire continued.
"Rebecca warned about Vincent making people focus on the first betrayal."
Marcus nodded slowly.
"Good point."
Adrian looked irritated by the truth of it.
"Then we verify everything."
Rachel left to prepare for court.
Marcus went to review access logs.
Claire remained in the study with Adrian.
He was reading Vincent's petition again.
"Stop."
He looked up.
"What?"
"Reading the part about us."
"How do you know what I'm reading?"
"Your face."
"My face doesn't say anything."
"Your daughter disagrees."
The corner of his mouth almost moved.
Then he looked back at the page.
"He will use you."
Claire folded her arms.
"He already is."
"I mean he will use whatever exists between us."
Her heartbeat changed.
"Nothing exists between us."
Adrian lifted his gaze.
Claire immediately regretted how quickly she had answered.
"I am your employee."
"Yes."
"You are Lily's father."
"Yes."
"That is all."
Adrian looked at her for several seconds.
"If you need it to be."
The answer unsettled her more than disagreement would have.
"I need Lily not to become evidence in someone else's war."
Adrian's face softened.
"So do I."
Claire looked away.
On the desk sat Rebecca's letter mentioning the blue key.
"We should figure out what she meant."
Adrian nodded.
They went to Lily's room together.
The child was building a cardboard city with Mrs. Callahan, who had returned from the hospital against medical advice.
A white bandage covered the side of her forehead.
Adrian stared at her.
"You were told to rest."
Mrs. Callahan placed another cardboard building on the carpet.
"I am sitting."
Claire hid a smile.
They asked Lily gently about a blue key.
She frowned.
"I don't have one."
Claire remembered Rebecca's instruction.
Do not force her.
Let the song bring it back.
She turned on the old lullaby recording.
Rebecca's voice filled the room.
Lily stopped building.
Her expression changed.
Claire watched carefully.
At the second verse, Lily looked toward the dollhouse near the window.
Then she froze.
"Mommy's doctor."
Adrian went still.
"What about him?"
"He gave me a key."
Claire's pulse jumped.
"Where?"
Lily stood and crossed to the dollhouse.
She removed the roof.
Inside the tiny upstairs bathroom sat a miniature blue bathtub.
Lily lifted it.
Beneath was a small brass key painted blue.
Adrian stared.
"Which doctor gave you that?"
Lily thought.
"Not Dr. Reynolds."
"Who?"
"Mommy's hospital doctor."
Adrian's face hardened.
"Dr. Malcolm Vale?"
Lily nodded.
Claire looked at him.
"Who is he?"
"Rebecca's oncologist."
"Did he know about her investigation?"
"Not that I knew."
Claire picked up the key.
A small number was engraved on it.
B-27.
Marcus searched the number against properties, storage facilities, safe-deposit systems, and Mercer records.
Nothing matched.
Then Claire thought of the dollhouse bathroom.
"Hospital."
Adrian looked at her.
"What?"
"Lily hid it under a bathtub because she associated it with the doctor."
Marcus understood.
"B could be a hospital wing."
Within twenty minutes they found an old patient storage system at St. Catherine's Medical Center.
Private oncology patients had secured document cabinets in Wing B.
Rebecca's treatment records showed she had used locker B-27.
The hospital had never cleared it because the account remained prepaid through the Mercer family foundation.
Adrian called the hospital administrator directly.
He, Claire, Marcus, and Rachel arrived before sunset.
Locker B-27 contained one sealed medical envelope.
Rebecca Mercer had written Adrian's name on the front.
He stared at it for a long time.
Claire stood beside him.
"You don't have to open it here."
"Yes, I do."
Inside were copies of lab reports.
Medication lists.
Appointment notes.
And a receipt from a private clinic in Cambridge dated three weeks before Rebecca's death.
Adrian frowned.
"She never went there."
Marcus checked the page.
"The appointment was under her maiden name."
Rachel read the clinic name.
"Forensic toxicology."
Claire's stomach tightened.
Adrian turned to the lab report behind it.
A handwritten note from Rebecca was clipped to the page.
Malcolm says the medication explains the confusion.
I never took this medication.
Adrian stopped breathing.
Claire read the laboratory result.
A sedative called midazolam had been detected repeatedly in Rebecca's blood at levels inconsistent with her prescribed home medications.
Claire looked at Adrian.
"Was she hospitalized?"
"On and off."
"Could they have given it there?"
"Sometimes."
Marcus pointed to the dates.
"These samples were drawn at home."
Adrian's face turned white.
Rachel spoke carefully.
"This does not mean someone poisoned her."
"I know."
"It could have been part of palliative care."
"I know what she was prescribed."
Adrian's voice cracked.
He looked at the medication sheet.
"This wasn't on it."
Claire thought of Lily saying Rebecca collapsed in the bathroom.
"What happened the day she locked the bathroom door?"
Adrian went quiet.
"She had been confused all morning."
"Confused how?"
"She kept saying someone had moved papers."
"Did someone?"
"I thought she was mistaken."
The shame in his voice was unmistakable.
"She locked herself in the bathroom."
"When I got the door open, she was on the floor."
"Dr. Vale said the cancer had progressed."
Claire looked at the note.
"Maybe she was trying to prove something else."
Marcus unfolded another sheet.
"There is an appointment number here."
The toxicology clinic had recorded an emergency contact.
Not Adrian.
Not Evelyn.
Not Marcus.
Julian Cross.
Adrian stared at the name.
Rachel whispered, "Why would Rebecca list Julian?"
Claire turned the page over.
On the back, Rebecca had written one sentence.
I didn't.
Then Adrian's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered without speaking.
A man's voice came through the speaker.
"You keep digging up dead women, nephew."
Adrian's face changed.
Vincent.
"Stay away from my daughter."
Vincent laughed softly.
"You should be thanking me."
"For what?"
"For giving Lily the one thing Rebecca never could."
Adrian's voice dropped.
"What?"
"The truth about you."
The line went dead.
A message arrived immediately afterward.
It contained an address.
May you like
And one sentence.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT REBECCA'S LAST APPOINTMENT RECORDING.
