Chapter 5 - CLAIRE’S STORAGE UNIT
Claire's parents were dead.
Rebecca's possessions had gone to Claire.
Most sat untouched inside a storage unit outside Dallas.
Claire had avoided opening the boxes for five years.
Too painful.
Now police went with her.
I did too.
Not as husband.
As Sarah's husband.
Former husband to Claire emotionally, though the legal marriage still existed.
The storage unit smelled like cardboard and heat.
Rebecca's nursing textbooks.
Shoes.
Photographs.
A coffee mug.
Then we found a locked metal case.
Claire knew the combination.
Rebecca's birthday.
Inside were three things.
A hospital ID badge.
A letter.
And a flash drive.
The letter was addressed:
CLAIRE
She opened it.
Her hands shook.
Rebecca wrote that she had not killed Sarah Hayes.
Dr. Lang and a research administrator named Martin Vale had pressured staff to conceal a nonconsensual medication trial after Sarah's death.
She had copied the roster.
Then:
There were other mothers.
I stopped.
Other mothers.
The flash drive contained twenty-seven patient names.
Six had experienced severe complications.
Three infants had required intensive care.
Two mothers died.
Sarah was one.
The other was Melissa Grant.
Her death had been listed as uncontrollable postpartum hemorrhage.
No lawsuit.
No scandal.
Her husband believed doctors had done everything possible.
Police contacted him.
He broke down.
The pattern widened.
This was no longer only Sarah.
Claire sat on the storage floor crying.
"I spent two years searching your house."
I stared.
"Two years?"
She nodded.
She had begun searching before our marriage.
Not constantly.
Small opportunities.
My closet.
Sarah's boxes.
Old laptop.
She believed Rebecca's phrase find the father meant me.
But maybe Rebecca meant Melissa Grant's husband.
Or another father.
I looked at her.
"You frightened Ari for this."
Claire closed her eyes.
"Yes."
"You told her I'd stop believing her."
"Yes."
"You turned Sarah's photograph down."
Tears.
"Yes."
"Why?"
That answer took longer.
"Because I was jealous."
There.
Not conspiracy.
Not noble investigation.
Plain ugliness.
"Of a dead woman?"
"Yes."
Claire looked ashamed.
"I started this because of Rebecca. Then I really loved you."
She wiped her face.
"And Sarah was everywhere."
"She is Ari's mother."
"I know."
"No. You knew factually. You didn't accept it emotionally."
Claire nodded.
"I hated that she could never disappoint you."
That was painfully human.
Also not my problem.
"I don't worship Sarah."
"You talk about her like she was perfect."
"She wasn't."
Sarah forgot appointments.
Hated laundry.
Spent too much on books.
Snored.
Got furious when hungry.
Real.
I loved her real.
I looked at Claire.
"You were competing with someone who wasn't competing."
She cried.
"I know."
Then Detective Monroe interrupted.
"We found something."
The flash drive contained a payment ledger.
Martin Vale had authorized payments after each adverse event.
One payment went to Dr. Lang.
Another to hospital counsel.
Another—
to my malpractice attorney.
Mark Ellison.
The man who advised me to take the settlement.
He had been paid by the people he was supposed to negotiate against.
My case had been managed from both sides.
May you like
That was why everything disappeared so cleanly.
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