Chapter 5 - The Nurse Who Ran
Dr. Keller disconnected the IV.
Mara’s heart rate slowly recovered.
Security footage showed the head nurse entering the room during the confusion.
The same nurse Evelyn had spoken with.
By the time guards searched the clinic, she was gone.
Her personnel file was false.
The address belonged to an abandoned motel.
The license number belonged to a retired nurse in Arizona.
Harrison ordered armed security outside Mara’s room.
Then he called Sheriff Cole Mercer, the man who had investigated Mara’s disappearance nine years earlier.
Mercer sounded surprised to learn she was alive.
He sounded less surprised than Harrison expected.
“Did you ever find evidence that Mara’s crash was staged?” Harrison asked.
“There were inconsistencies.”
“What inconsistencies?”
“The driver’s seat was positioned too far back for her.”
“The blood on the wheel was hers, but there wasn’t enough to indicate a fatal injury.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Your family attorney pressured the department to close the case.”
“Which attorney?”
“Gordon Price.”
Price still represented Hartland Ranch.
He had also prepared the documents transferring Silver Crown Holdings to Evelyn.
Harrison ended the call.
Lucy was watching him.
“You believe Mom now?”
“I should have believed her nine years ago.”
Lucy lowered her eyes.
“She said you were a good man who listened too late.”
The truth hurt because it sounded exactly like Mara.
Dr. Keller entered.
“Mara is stable.”
“She may wake soon.”
Harrison sat beside his daughter’s bed.
He studied the scars covering her wrists.
Some were old.
Others were recent.
The image of her chained somewhere refused to leave his mind.
Near midnight, Mara opened her eyes.
Harrison leaned closer.
“I’m here.”
She stared at him for several seconds.
“Lucy?”
“Safe.”
“Tommy?”
“Safe.”
Mara began crying.
Harrison had seen his daughter fall from horses, break bones, and stand alone at her mother’s funeral without shedding a tear.
Now she looked terrified.
“They took Daniel.”
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
“Who?”
“Evelyn and Silas.”
Silas Crowe had managed Hartland Ranch for twenty-two years.
He was the man Harrison trusted with every gate, worker, and acre of land.
Mara gripped Harrison’s hand.
“Dad, Daniel never stole from you.”
May you like
“He discovered who did.”
Then the lights in the clinic went out.
