Chapter 5 - The Woman They Called a Thief
I stared at the watch.
“I've never seen that before.”
The officer remained polite.
“It was found inside your suitcase.”
“Someone put it there.”
Christopher lowered his eyes.
“I don't want trouble. Nora has a baby.”
His performance was flawless.
That made me furious.
“You planted it.”
“Nora,” Evelyn warned.
Christopher looked wounded.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because Raymond woke up.”
Silence.
I knew immediately I had made a mistake.
Christopher’s face changed for perhaps half a second.
Then confusion replaced it.
“My uncle woke up?”
Everyone looked toward the bedroom.
Raymond lay motionless.
Christopher approached the bed.
“Uncle Raymond?”
Nothing.
He looked at me.
Almost pityingly.
“Nora, have you been sleeping?”
The trap closed around me.
I sounded unstable.
Desperate.
Exactly what Christopher needed.
Then Theodore began crying.
The sound filled the room.
And something extraordinary happened.
Raymond’s hand moved.
Only slightly.
But Evelyn saw it.
So did one police officer.
Christopher saw it too.
His face drained of color.
Evelyn stepped forward.
“Raymond?”
One finger moved.
The officer looked at Christopher.
Suddenly the watch in my suitcase mattered less.
Evelyn leaned toward Raymond.
“Can you hear me?”
One blink.
The room became completely silent.
Christopher backed away.
Raymond opened his eye.
Evelyn’s hand flew to her mouth.
“Raymond?”
His lips moved.
No sound emerged.
But he was awake.
And now there were witnesses.
Christopher recovered quickly.
“This could be reflexive.”
Dr. Chen entered behind us.
“No,” she said. “It isn't.”
She approached Raymond.
“Raymond, blink once if you understand me.”
One blink.
“Blink twice if you do not.”
Two blinks.
The officer lowered the evidence bag containing the watch.
Everything changed in that moment.
Not enough to arrest Christopher.
Not enough to prove poisoning.
But enough to keep me in the house.
Enough to bring Raymond protection.
Dr. Chen ordered Raymond transferred to a hospital under independent supervision.
Christopher objected.
Nobody listened.
For the first time since I had arrived, he looked afraid.
As Raymond was wheeled toward the ambulance, his fingers reached weakly toward Theodore.
I carried my son closer.
Theodore grabbed Raymond’s index finger.
Raymond’s eye softened.
It was the first expression I'd seen on his face that wasn't fear.
At the hospital, tests began immediately.
Hours passed.
Then Dr. Chen entered the waiting room.
“We found something.”
Evelyn stood.
“What?”
“Evidence that Raymond’s condition may have been chemically maintained.”
My knees weakened.
“Can he recover?”
“We don't know.”
“Can you prove who did it?”
“Not yet.”
That word again.
Yet.
But Christopher was no longer our only problem.
Because when investigators went to find Dr. Wallace—
his clinic was empty.
May you like
His phone was disconnected.
And the doctor who had been treating Raymond Winslow for months had disappeared.
