Chapter 14 - Samuel’s Lie
Samuel disappeared from police protection before dawn.
His hospital bed was empty.
The guard outside his room had been drugged.
Security footage showed Samuel walking through the parking garage without assistance.
His limp had vanished.
The swelling around his eye had been makeup.
The kidnapping had been real, but his helplessness had been an act.
Detective Torres issued an alert.
I stared at the photograph from the archive.
Samuel stood beside Elias and Keene seventeen years earlier.
He was younger, clean-shaven, and wearing the emerald ring.
He had not been the investigator Dad hired.
At least, not originally.
He had been part of Northbridge.
Dad must have discovered Samuel’s past after hiring him.
The question was why he continued trusting him.
Daniel opened Dad’s spreadsheet.
He searched the notes attached to Samuel’s name.
The entries changed over time.
S. Reed recommended by M. Cole.
Background incomplete.
Northbridge connection confirmed.
Confronted him.
He says he wants to testify.
Last line.
Samuel has evidence but wants protection for his daughter.
We searched public records.
Samuel Reed had one daughter.
Lauren Pike.
The institution admissions coordinator.
Lauren had not accidentally entered our house.
She had been working with her father.
When Detective Torres questioned her again, Lauren stopped pretending.
She admitted Samuel had instructed her to accept Mom’s forged placement paperwork.
He wanted the institutionalization plan to proceed far enough to expose every participant.
“You used Daniel as bait,” I said.
Lauren looked away.
“My father said your brother was never in real danger.”
“His glasses were crushed.”
“He was bruised.”
“I didn’t know Elias would touch him.”
“But you knew they were provoking him.”
She said nothing.
“Where is your father?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did he fake his injuries?”
“To escape police custody before Keene could have him killed.”
“Keene is in custody.”
“My father isn’t afraid of Keene.”
“Then who is he afraid of?”
Lauren’s lips trembled.
“Your father.”
The room became silent.
“My father is dead.”
“That is what Samuel believed too.”
Lauren pushed a photograph across the table.
It had been taken six weeks earlier at a train station in Montreal.
The image was blurred.
A man stood beneath the departure board.
He was thinner than Dad and wore a cap pulled low over his face.
But his posture was familiar.
So was the scar beneath his chin.
Daniel stared at the photograph.
His fingers began shaking.
He typed one sentence.
“Dad is alive.”
I wanted to believe it.
Then Torres examined the image metadata.
“The date was altered.”
Lauren’s face fell.
The photograph was not six weeks old.
May you like
It had been taken two days before Dad’s funeral.
Someone had photographed him after his official time of death but before we buried him.
