Chapter 17 - The Last Insider
Her name was Rebecca Lane.
She had worked at the hospital for eleven years.
She had treated me after the attack.
She had carried the flowers into my room.
She had replaced Grant’s note with the threat.
And she had been paid by Diane for nearly three years.
Federal agents arrested her before she finished her shift.
At first, Rebecca denied everything.
Then investigators showed her the hotel footage.
Her face collapsed.
She admitted placing a listening device beneath my pillow.
She also admitted giving Diane information about my medical condition.
That included Dr. Shah’s schedule.
That was how Diane knew exactly when to abduct her.
Rebecca claimed she never understood how far Diane would go.
Nobody believed her.
Then she gave us the location Diane had used the previous night.
A lakeside rental house.
Agents arrived within forty minutes.
Diane was gone.
But she had left something behind.
A videotape.
An old one.
The label read:
FOR MARA.
We played it.
Diane appeared on screen.
She looked directly into the camera.
“If you are watching this, then Rebecca finally betrayed me.”
She smiled.
“Everyone does eventually.”
My stomach tightened.
Diane continued.
“You want to understand why I chose you.”
She explained that Evan had always been weak.
Intelligent enough to follow instructions.
Charming enough to gain trust.
But weak.
Diane wanted him attached to someone with wealth and social credibility.
I fit both.
Dad became the obstacle.
Then I became the obstacle.
“I gave you every opportunity to accept the life I built for you.”
She sounded offended.
“You kept asking questions.”
My hands tightened.
Then she said something unexpected.
“The strangulation was not planned.”
I stared at the screen.
“Evan lost control.”
She leaned closer.
“But leaving you at the hospital was my idea.”
Nora whispered a curse.
Diane continued.
“I told him to make himself look injured.”
That explained the torn shirt.
The scratch.
The story.
Everything had been staged while I lay unconscious.
Then Diane smiled one final time.
“You survived because Evan failed.”
The screen went black.
A second video began automatically.
It showed another room.
A man sat tied to a chair.
Grant Wheeler.
He had somehow been taken again.
Diane stood behind him.
“You believed Grant was helping you.”
She rested a hand on his shoulder.
“He helped murder Thomas Bell.”
Grant shouted.
“That was Ramirez.”
Diane laughed.
“You cut the brake line.”
Grant struggled.
Then the video ended.
Agent Frost immediately contacted Grant’s detention facility.
Grant was still there.
Safe.
The video had been recorded earlier.
Diane was not threatening him.
She was documenting him.
Building insurance.
Then Frost received a financial alert.
Someone had just attempted to access the forty-million-dollar trust.
The authorization request came from inside the federal courthouse.
The courthouse where Evan’s preliminary hearing was scheduled to begin in thirty minutes.
May you like
Diane had walked directly into the one building filled with armed law enforcement.
And she had done it on purpose.
