Chapter 5 - The Woman Claire Trusted
Rebecca came to the hospital carrying flowers.
That was how confident she was.
She walked into Claire’s room wearing a cream coat and an expression of carefully practiced concern.
“Oh my God, Claire.”
I was standing beside the window.
Rebecca saw me.
For perhaps half a second, something cold appeared behind her eyes.
Then it vanished.
She moved toward Claire.
I stepped between them.
“Leave the flowers.”
Rebecca blinked.
“Excuse me?”
“On the table.”
Claire watched silently.
Rebecca gave a nervous laugh.
“Evelyn, I understand everyone is emotional—”
“I said put them down.”
She did.
Then I noticed Claire staring at the bouquet.
Not the flowers.
The card.
Rebecca noticed too.
Her hand moved toward it.
I got there first.
The card contained six words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED QUIET, CLAIRE.
Rebecca turned toward the door.
Detective Hale was standing there.
He had been waiting in the hallway.
Rebecca’s face drained of color.
Sometimes justice arrives with dramatic speeches.
Sometimes it arrives because a guilty person brings her own evidence into a hospital room.
Rebecca was detained.
Her phone was seized.
Within hours, investigators discovered communications connecting her to Grant and Daniel’s financial records.
But Rebecca had something Grant didn’t.
Fear.
And frightened conspirators talk.
By midnight, she wanted an attorney.
By morning, she wanted a deal.
And by afternoon, she had given investigators a location.
A storage facility outside the city.
Unit 314.
Registered under a dead man’s name.
Inside were boxes of financial records.
Fake medical documents.
Burner phones.
And a black duffel bag prepared for Friday.
Claire’s identification was inside.
So were clothes in her size.
The plan had been ready.
Almost.
But buried beneath the financial records was something nobody expected.
A folder marked:
E. CARTER
My name.
Inside were photographs of me spanning almost six months.
My home.
My car.
Restaurants.
The cemetery where Robert was buried.
And on the final page was a typed schedule.
My schedule.
Grant had not started planning for me after Claire disappeared.
He had been studying me long before that.
Which raised a terrifying question.
May you like
Why?
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