Chapter 18 - The Doctor’s Appointment
Alex’s private physician was Dr. Samuel Keene.
He had signed the false records claiming Alex suffered psychiatric episodes.
He had also recommended the supplement that made Alex ill three weeks before the wedding.
Ruiz’s team searched his clinic.
It had been emptied overnight.
Bank records showed Keene received two million dollars from a Marcus-controlled account.
A calendar on his office computer contained one future appointment.
SOFI HERRERA.
Lucia stared at the screen.
“My daughter has never been his patient.”
The appointment was scheduled for that afternoon at an abandoned pediatric clinic in the Bronx.
Ruiz believed it was a trap.
Alex agreed.
They went anyway.
The clinic smelled of dust and disinfectant.
Inside an examination room, they found Dr. Keene tied to a chair.
A small camera faced him.
Marcus had forced him to record a confession claiming Alex ordered the fraudulent medical documents.
Keene admitted helping Marcus create the incapacity plan.
He also revealed that Genevieve had been instructed to place a concentrated sedative in Alex’s champagne immediately after signing the marriage certificate.
The dose could have stopped his breathing.
Genevieve had been told it would merely make him sleep.
“She asked me whether it was dangerous,” Keene said.
“I told her no.”
“She believed what she wanted to believe.”
Ruiz freed him.
A timer began beeping beneath the chair.
Agents evacuated the building seconds before a fire suppression tank ruptured.
It released a cloud of chemical foam that destroyed computers and paper records.
Marcus had anticipated the rescue.
However, he missed one detail.
The camera recording Keene’s confession transmitted to a remote account.
Naomi traced it to a hotel near Grand Central.
Police surrounded the building.
Marcus was in a top-floor suite watching live coverage of Ward Global’s collapse.
When agents entered, the room was empty.
A window stood open.
A maintenance harness hung outside.
Marcus had crossed to the neighboring building.
Alex saw movement on the rooftop.
He followed despite Ruiz’s order.
Marcus waited near the ledge.
Rain darkened his coat.
“You destroyed your father’s company,” Marcus said.
“No.”
“My father began destroying it years ago.”
“You think confession makes you righteous?”
“No.”
“It makes the victims visible.”
Marcus laughed.
“Victims do not run companies.”
“They bury them.”
He stepped backward toward the edge.
Alex stopped advancing.
“Javier gave you a choice.”
“You killed him for refusing your money.”
“I did not push him from that platform.”
“You removed the systems meant to save him.”
Marcus’s face twisted.
“You would have done the same thing.”
Alex shook his head.
“That is what my father told himself.”
Police appeared behind them.
Marcus looked over the ledge.
May you like
Then he raised both hands.
For the first time, the man who controlled everyone else had nowhere left to go.
