Chapter 9 - Midnight
Brooks wanted Naomi moved immediately.
Naomi refused.
“You are now a target.”
“I was a target this morning.”
“You are a bigger one now.”
Naomi looked toward Evelyn’s room.
“What do they want?”
“We don’t know.”
“They said I have until midnight.”
“Which means they’re going to contact you.”
“Then I need to be reachable.”
Brooks hated it.
Naomi could tell.
Adrian hated it more.
“You’re not doing this.”
Naomi turned.
“This stopped being your decision when your fiancée put a pillow over your mother’s face.”
The words hurt him.
She did not apologize.
He nodded slowly.
“Fine.”
Brooks arranged a controlled line.
Naomi received a replacement phone.
At 10:17 p.m., it rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
“Hello.”
Silence.
Then the altered voice.
“Naomi Carter.”
“Yes.”
“You understand the situation?”
“No.”
“Don’t pretend.”
“I’m not pretending.”
The voice paused.
“You have something we need.”
Naomi looked at Brooks.
She was tracing.
“What?”
“Evelyn’s authorization.”
Naomi said nothing.
“You were named successor.”
“Apparently.”
“Do you know why?”
“No.”
“That’s the problem with servants.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
The voice continued.
“You spend enough time inside a house and start believing proximity is importance.”
Naomi recognized the contempt.
Not Mercer.
Maybe Marcus.
Maybe someone older.
She remained calm.
“What do you want?”
“At eleven forty-five, you’ll leave the hospital.”
“No.”
“You’ll take Adrian Vale with you.”
“No.”
“You’ll bring him to the old Vale boathouse.”
Naomi looked at Adrian.
His face changed.
“What for?”
“To execute a revocation.”
“There is no document.”
“We know.”
The voice sounded amused.
“You will record a statement renouncing any authority Evelyn assigned you.”
“Why would that matter?”
“It matters.”
“Then you don’t understand the trust.”
Silence.
Naomi had guessed right.
The caller did not know everything.
Samuel’s warning was true.
They had fragments.
Not the full instrument.
Naomi continued.
“If Evelyn dies, my authority activates automatically.”
The caller’s tone changed.
“How do you know?”
“I’ve seen the schedule.”
A lie.
Brooks gave a tiny nod.
“Then bring it.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Where?”
“With Detective Brooks.”
The detective stared.
Naomi continued.
“You already stole the wrong flash drive.”
Another lie.
A larger one.
The caller went silent.
Naomi pressed.
“The blue room drive was a decoy.”
Brooks nearly smiled.
Naomi continued.
“Evelyn made three copies.”
“Where?”
“Do you think she’d tell me?”
“You’re lying.”
“Then kill me.”
Adrian stared at her.
Brooks shook her head sharply.
Naomi ignored both.
“If I’m lying, you lose nothing.”
Silence.
“But if I’m not, killing Evelyn gives me control.”
Naomi’s voice became colder.
“And killing me triggers the independent committee immediately.”
She had no idea whether that was true.
Samuel had not said it.
But the caller did not know that.
The altered breathing grew louder.
Naomi continued.
“So here is what happens.”
Brooks raised both eyebrows.
Naomi did not stop.
“You return the flash drive.”
“You release Samuel Reed.”
“We already did.”
“You stop trying to reach Evelyn.”
Silence.
“And maybe you survive the week without adding kidnapping, attempted murder, and conspiracy to whatever financial crimes you’ve been hiding for fifteen years.”
The line went dead.
Brooks stared at Naomi.
“What the hell was that?”
“A bluff.”
“Which part?”
“Most of it.”
Adrian almost laughed.
Brooks did not.
“You told them the drive was useless.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because now they may try to verify it.”
“How?”
“They need someone who knows the trust.”
“Samuel.”
Naomi nodded.
“Or Evelyn.”
Adrian looked horrified.
“That puts Mom in danger.”
“She already is.”
Brooks understood.
“You think they’ll go after Samuel again.”
“Yes.”
“Which means we watch Samuel.”
Naomi nodded.
“And anyone who approaches him.”
Brooks called for additional officers.
At 11:03 p.m., hospital security reported a suspicious man on the parking level.
Police detained him.
Wrong person.
At 11:28, Samuel’s heart monitor alarmed.
Naomi jumped.
A nurse ran inside.
False lead.
Sensor failure.
At 11:41, the lights flickered.
Brooks stood immediately.
Backup power activated.
Then the hospital fire alarm sounded.
Naomi looked at her.
“No.”
Brooks reached for the radio.
Smoke was reported on the second floor.
Evacuation procedures began.
Evelyn was on the fourth.
Adrian moved toward her room.
Officers blocked him.
Brooks shouted instructions.
Naomi watched the corridor.
Nurses moved patients.
Visitors panicked.
Doors opened.
Alarms flashed.
Chaos.
Exactly what someone needed.
Naomi looked toward Samuel’s room.
The officer outside it was gone.
“Brooks.”
The detective turned.
“Samuel.”
They ran.
Samuel’s room was empty.
The IV line lay on the floor.
Blood dotted the sheet where he had pulled it out.
Window locked.
Bathroom empty.
Naomi looked toward the ceiling.
Service access panel.
Open.
Again.
“They took him through maintenance.”
Brooks cursed.
Then Adrian shouted from down the hall.
“Naomi!”
She ran back.
Evelyn’s room.
Door open.
Bed empty.
Naomi stopped dead.
Two ICU nurses stood inside, stunned.
“What happened?”
“One of the transport teams moved her.”
“What transport team?”
“We thought they were with emergency evacuation.”
Brooks grabbed the nurse.
“Which direction?”
“Service elevators.”
Adrian ran.
Naomi followed.
They reached the freight elevator.
Descending.
Floor indicator.
3.
4.
5.
Basement.
Brooks called officers downstairs.
No response.
The fire alarm continued screaming.
Naomi took the stairs.
Four floors down.
Her lungs burned.
Adrian stayed beside her.
Brooks followed.
They reached the basement.
The corridor was empty.
One wheelchair lay overturned.
A clear oxygen tube stretched across the floor.
Naomi picked it up.
Evelyn’s.
Adrian’s face went white.
Then a van engine roared outside.
They ran toward the loading dock.
A white medical transport van sped through the gate.
Brooks raised her radio.
“Vehicle leaving south service exit.”
She read the plate.
Naomi stared.
The plate belonged to Greenwich Memorial Hospital.
Professional.
Prepared.
They had stolen a real vehicle.
Adrian looked ready to collapse.
“My mother is in that van.”
Naomi grabbed his shoulders.
“Then we find the van.”
Brooks received a response.
Traffic cameras had it.
Southbound.
Then west.
Toward the coast.
Naomi remembered the phone call.
The old Vale boathouse.
Brooks looked at her at the exact same moment.
“No.”
Adrian was already running toward the parking garage.
Brooks followed.
Naomi did too.
Police vehicles raced toward the shore.
11:56 p.m.
Four minutes before midnight.
The boathouse sat on property the Vale family had not used in years.
A relic from Adrian’s grandfather.
Remote.
Private.
Accessible by water.
At 12:07, they arrived.
The medical van stood outside.
Doors open.
Empty.
Naomi entered the boathouse.
A light burned upstairs.
Brooks whispered.
“Stay behind me.”
They climbed.
One step.
Then another.
Naomi heard a voice.
Male.
Angry.
“Where is the real drive?”
Samuel.
“I don’t know.”
A slap.
Adrian flinched.
Naomi kept moving.
They reached the landing.
Through a cracked door, Naomi saw Samuel tied to a chair.
Evelyn lay on a cot.
Oxygen mask in place.
Alive.
Standing beside them was Captain Daniel Mercer.
Gun in hand.
And beside Mercer stood someone Naomi had not expected.
Theodore Vale.
Adrian’s seventy-nine-year-old uncle.
No cane.
No frailty.
No confusion.
Theodore looked toward the door.
Directly at Naomi.
He smiled.
May you like
“I was wondering how long it would take the maid to figure it out.”
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