Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
Claire survived.
Doctors at St. Matthew’s Medical Center determined she had been repeatedly sedated with a combination of prescription medications.
Enough to keep her disoriented.
Not enough to reliably kill her.
She was severely dehydrated.
Her wrists were bruised.
There were injection marks on her arm.
But no catastrophic injury.
Ethan sat outside intensive care wrapped in a hospital blanket.
Marcus brought him hot chocolate.
Ethan did not touch it.
“Is Richard my stepdad anymore?”
Marcus sat beside him.
“That isn't something you have to decide tonight.”
“He tried to bury my mom.”
“Yes.”
“Alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“We're figuring that out.”
Ethan looked at him.
“You already think you know.”
Smart kid.
Marcus sighed.
“I think Richard needed people to believe your mother was dead.”
“Why?”
“That’s the question.”
Richard was arrested.
Attempted murder.
Kidnapping.
Unlawful restraint.
Weapons offenses.
More charges likely.
But he refused interrogation.
Lawyered up immediately.
The funeral home owner, Calvin Dorsey, claimed ignorance.
That story collapsed quickly.
Records showed Richard had paid him $38,000 in cash.
Dorsey disappeared before police could arrest him.
Now Marcus had two suspects.
One missing.
One silent.
And the number Claire had written:
714.
The next morning Claire woke.
Ethan was allowed in.
She looked smaller somehow.
He approached carefully.
“Mom?”
Claire raised her hand.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Against the bed rail.
Ethan broke.
He climbed beside her and cried into her shoulder.
Claire held him as tightly as she could.
“I heard you,” Ethan whispered.
“I know.”
“I almost left.”
“But you didn't.”
“Richard told me I imagined it.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“He's been doing that for a long time.”
Later Marcus interviewed her.
Claire struggled to remember everything.
Richard had become increasingly controlling over the previous year.
Money.
Phone.
Friends.
Then, three months earlier, Claire discovered financial documents inside his home office.
Richard worked as CFO of Northstar Children's Foundation, a large nonprofit managing charitable funds across New England.
Claire found transfers.
Millions.
Money intended for housing programs and pediatric medical grants had been routed through consulting companies.
Companies connected to Richard.
She confronted him indirectly.
He denied wrongdoing.
Then she began collecting evidence.
“714?” Marcus asked.
Claire looked at him.
“Storage unit.”
“Where?”
“Union Street Storage.”
Unit 714.
Marcus immediately obtained a warrant.
Inside they found boxes.
Bank records.
Hard drives.
Copies of contracts.
Claire had built a complete archive.
But one box was empty.
Label:
HELIX
Marcus asked:
“What is Helix?”
Claire stared.
“I don't know.”
“You labeled it.”
“No.”
Marcus frowned.
Claire continued.
“That wasn't my handwriting.”
Someone else had accessed the unit.
Then Ethan, who had been drawing quietly nearby, looked up.
“I've seen that word.”
Both adults turned.
“Where?”
“Richard's computer.”
“When?”
“A few weeks ago.”
“What did you see?”
“A folder.”
“What was inside?”
“I don't know. He shut it when I walked in.”
“Anything else?”
Ethan thought.
Then:
“There was Mom's picture.”
Claire froze.
“My picture?”
“And mine.”
Marcus felt the case shift beneath him.
This wasn't only embezzlement.
Richard had been building files on Claire and Ethan.
Why?
Then Claire remembered something.
Three weeks before her disappearance, Richard had suddenly insisted she update her will.
Her life insurance too.
“How much?” Marcus asked.
Claire whispered:
May you like
“Eight million dollars.”
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