Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN IN BLACK SHOES
Investigators located Jenna Nolan in the Bahamas after finally reconciling the cruise ship's inaccurate passenger records.
She had left the vessel early under a different surname, traveled through a private charter arrangement, and returned to Virginia.
But she insisted she had never entered the hospital.
Her lawyer supplied a medical record suggesting a recent ankle injury had caused her limp.
The same lawyer produced surveillance footage placing her elsewhere during part of the hospital incident.
"Someone is copying her appearance," Bell said.
"Or the footage has a gap," I answered.
"Both remain possible."
The woman in the hospital recording was not clearly identifiable.
A frightened witness wanted certainty; an investigator needed proof.
For Lily's sake, I practiced living with the difference.
Meanwhile, prosecutors received an unexpected statement from Derek.
Through counsel, he claimed that a group of financiers had forced him to participate in the scheme by threatening Lily.
He said he had intended to warn authorities after returning from the cruise.
The statement was riddled with contradictions.
He had lied to the neighbor, left his daughter alone, and shouted at the police not to open the closet.
Yet a part of his account matched a previously unknown detail from the storage unit.
He mentioned the nickname Blackbird, used by the woman who supervised the operation.
Bell hadn't disclosed that nickname publicly.
"Maybe someone told him," I said.
"Maybe," Bell replied.
"Or maybe he knows more than he's admitting."
At a procedural hearing, I caught sight of Derek through a window in the courthouse corridor.
He looked thinner and older, dressed in plain clothes, his smile absent.
For one moment he seemed like the man who once rocked Lily through a fever.
Then he lifted his eyes to mine and shaped two silent words.
Your fault.
The familiar cruelty was so effortless that I almost laughed.
He could still find a way to blame me for a decision he had made.
Naomi guided me away.
Later that day, a federal investigator, Agent Priya Desai, met with Bell and me.
She explained that financial and identity records suggested a network wider than one family, but emphasized that charges would depend on provable acts and proper jurisdiction.
"Our priority is the children and families potentially affected," she said.
"Children?" I repeated.
She showed me a sanitized list of policy numbers.
At least six suspicious applications had been linked to Safe Harbor-associated accounts.
All listed minors as insured individuals.
No one yet knew whether any policy had been used to support a completed crime.
I covered my mouth.
Lily had not been an isolated target.
That evening, Desai received an urgent message from a separate investigative team.
An old client of Safe Harbor had agreed to speak.
The witness would only meet under protection and had one condition.
She insisted that Major Hannah Nolan be present.
When Desai asked why, the woman answered with a sentence I had not heard in years.
May you like
"Tell Hannah that Ethan never died in that accident."
