Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN IN THE WHITE COAT
Victor Carter posted bail at 4:20 Friday afternoon.
Lena learned about it from television.
She was sitting in a wheelchair beside the NICU incubator when his face appeared on the wall-mounted screen.
Victor walked out of the county courthouse surrounded by cameras.
His attorney stood beside him.
“My client maintains his innocence,” Bernard Shaw announced. “Mr. Carter is the victim of reckless assumptions based on statements made under severe medical distress.”
Lena stared through the incubator wall at her daughter.
They had named the girls months earlier.
Emma Grace.
Sophie Mae.
Emma, the larger twin, had already been taken off invasive breathing support.
Sophie was still struggling.
Tiny.
Fragile.
Her entire hand barely wrapped around Lena's fingertip.
On television Victor stopped beside a microphone.
“I love my wife.”
Lena's stomach turned.
“I love our daughters. I pray Lena recovers from this terrible accident.”
Damon stood several feet behind the wheelchair.
“Turn it off.”
Lena didn't.
Victor continued.
“I don't blame my wife for the things she may have said while confused and terrified.”
Damon walked across the room and shut the television off himself.
“You don't need to hear that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
“Because I need to remember what he sounds like when he lies.”
Damon looked at her.
She no longer looked frightened.
She looked furious.
Good, he thought.
Fear had almost killed her.
Anger might save her.
Detective Vega had warned Lena that Victor was under a no-contact order.
But a piece of paper wasn't a wall.
Victor's unknown accomplice remained free.
Hospital security had been doubled.
Two officers were stationed near the NICU.
Damon had hired private security too.
Lena protested.
He ignored her.
“You don't get to order me around,” she said.
“You almost died.”
“Still not your employee.”
“You were unbearable when we were twenty-four too.”
“You loved it.”
Damon looked at her.
The room became unexpectedly quiet.
Lena's eyes dropped first.
There were things between them neither was ready to touch.
Around six that evening Damon left briefly to speak with Detective Vega.
Lena stayed beside Sophie.
A nurse named Rachel entered carrying medication.
“Pain medicine, Mrs. Carter.”
Lena shook her head.
“I don't need anything.”
“Doctor's orders.”
“Which doctor?”
Rachel glanced at the label.
“Dr. Hayes.”
Something about the answer bothered Lena.
Dr. Hayes had specifically told her earlier they were reducing the medication because Lena wanted to stay alert around the babies.
“I'll wait.”
The nurse smiled.
“It'll help.”
“No.”
The woman's smile disappeared.
“Mrs. Carter, you've been through severe trauma.”
“I said no.”
Rachel stared at her.
Then she placed the syringe on a stainless tray.
“Of course.”
As the nurse turned away, Lena noticed something.
Her identification badge.
Rachel Morris.
But the photograph didn't look like her.
Lena's pulse quickened.
“Wait.”
The woman stopped.
Lena kept her voice casual.
“Can you help me stand?”
The woman turned back.
“Certainly.”
Lena reached toward the call button instead.
The woman's expression changed.
She moved fast.
Too fast.
Lena pressed the emergency button.
The false nurse grabbed the syringe.
Lena shoved the tray.
Metal crashed to the floor.
The woman lunged.
Lena screamed.
Two officers entered within seconds.
The woman ran toward the opposite door.
One officer tackled her before she reached the hall.
Damon arrived moments later to find Lena shaking beside Sophie's incubator.
“What happened?”
Vega held up the syringe.
“We don't know what's in this yet.”
Damon stared at the woman being handcuffed.
“Who is she?”
The suspect said nothing.
Then Lena recognized her.
Not clearly.
But enough.
“I've seen her before.”
Everyone turned.
“Where?” Vega asked.
Lena searched her memory.
Then it came back.
“Victor's company Christmas party.”
Damon's face darkened.
“She worked for him?”
“No.”
Lena stared at the woman.
“She came with Calvin Moore.”
Victor's alibi.
The friend who claimed Victor had spent the entire night playing poker at his lake house.
Detective Vega crouched in front of the suspect.
“What's your name?”
Silence.
“Calvin sent you?”
Nothing.
Vega stood.
“Take her.”
An hour later the hospital laboratory identified the contents of the syringe.
A powerful sedative.
Enough to cause serious respiratory complications in a patient recovering from hypothermia and surgery.
Lena stared at Detective Vega.
“They're trying again.”
“Yes.”
“And Victor's free.”
“For now.”
“What does it take?”
“Evidence connecting him directly.”
Damon leaned against the wall.
“What about the woman?”
“She has a record under the name Alicia Grant. Fraud, identity theft, prescription theft.”
“And Calvin?”
“Missing.”
Lena looked up.
“What?”
“His house is empty.”
Damon exchanged a glance with Vega.
“The poker alibi?”
“Collapsing. Two of the other men admitted Victor wasn't there the entire night.”
“How long was he gone?”
“Roughly three hours.”
Exactly enough time.
Lena almost laughed.
Finally.
But Vega didn't look relieved.
“There's another problem.”
“Of course there is,” Damon said.
“Alicia had photographs on her phone.”
She showed them.
Lena leaving her obstetrician.
Lena entering grocery stores.
Lena outside the warehouse.
Damon outside his office.
The twins' nursery window at Lena and Victor's house.
Someone had been watching them for weeks.
One photograph showed Damon meeting Rick outside a restaurant.
Lena frowned.
“Why Damon?”
Vega swiped to another image.
A document.
A life-insurance application.
Lena's policy.
Beneficiary: Victor Carter.
Supplemental accidental-death rider: $6 million.
Secondary investigation note:
SUBJECT HAS PRIOR PERSONAL AND FINANCIAL DISPUTE WITH DAMON CROSS.
Damon stared.
Victor had been building a narrative.
If Lena died in a locked freezer located beside property owned by Damon, police would discover Damon's fingerprints after he “found” her.
His old financial dispute with Lena would give motive.
His unresolved feelings would provide obsession.
Victor intended Damon to become the perfect suspect.
But then Damon had actually rescued her.
Victor's plan had turned against him.
Lena looked at Damon.
“He wasn't just going to kill me.”
“He was going to bury me too.”
“You would've been arrested.”
“Probably.”
“And I would've died believing you hated me.”
Damon gave her a tired smile.
“I tried.”
“What?”
“Hating you.”
She looked at him.
“Wasn't very good at it.”
Before Lena could answer, Vega's phone rang.
She listened.
Then frowned.
“Where?”
Her expression changed.
“We'll be there.”
She ended the call.
“What?” Damon asked.
“They found Calvin Moore's SUV.”
“Where?”
“Near Lake Michigan.”
“And Calvin?”
“No sign of him.”
Lena felt cold despite the warm hospital room.
Vega continued.
“But there was blood in the cargo area.”
Damon's face hardened.
Victor was eliminating people.
The freezer had been Plan A.
The hospital syringe had been Plan B.
Whatever Plan C was, Lena suspected Victor would not stop until everyone who could expose him was silent.
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Damon moved toward it.
“Don't.”
Lena answered.
Neither spoke at first.
Then Victor's voice came through.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Damon's fists clenched.
Lena put the call on speaker.
“You're violating the court order.”
Victor chuckled.
“You always did love rules.”
“What do you want?”
“To warn you.”
“About what?”
“Damon.”
Lena looked at him.
Victor continued.
“You think he's saving you?”
“He did save me.”
“No, Lena.”
A pause.
“He's the reason you were in that freezer.”
Damon's eyes narrowed.
Lena said nothing.
Victor lowered his voice.
“Ask him what happened to the missing six hundred thousand dollars.”
“I already did.”
Silence.
Victor had not expected that.
Lena smiled.
“And Victor?”
“Yes?”
“I know you stole it.”
For the first time in five years, Victor had no immediate answer.
Then he laughed.
“You don't know half of what Damon did.”
The line disconnected.
Damon stared at the phone.
Lena looked at him.
“What was he talking about?”
“I don't know.”
But something in his expression said otherwise.
Lena saw it.
“Damon.”
He exhaled.
“There is something I never told you.”
And suddenly Lena realized Victor might still possess one weapon more dangerous than money.
May you like
A secret Damon Cross had been keeping for five years.
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