Chapter 5 - THE DOCTOR WHO ERASED PROBLEMS
Dr. Preston locked the hospital-room door.
He held the syringe near Claire’s IV line.
“No one move.”
Detective Ruiz reached toward her weapon.
Preston shook his head.
“This stops the heart in less than a minute.”
Mara stood beside Claire’s bed.
“What do you want?”
“The memory card.”
“It has already been copied.”
“Then I want the copies.”
Claire studied his face.
He was sweating.
This was not a loyal servant carrying out a calm plan.
He was terrified.
“Lorraine sent you,” Claire said.
Preston’s eyes flickered.
“She said she would protect me.”
“She will blame you.”
“She has evidence against me.”
Claire understood.
Preston had falsified medical reports for years.
Lorraine owned those records.
“You helped fake Richard’s death.”
He looked toward the older man.
“I signed what I was told to sign.”
“You also covered injuries.”
Preston tightened his grip on the syringe.
“You people have no idea what she can do.”
Richard stepped forward.
“I do.”
Preston turned toward him.
Detective Ruiz moved.
She struck his arm before he reached the IV line.
The syringe fell.
Mara kicked it beneath the bed.
Two officers entered and forced Preston against the wall.
As they removed him, he began shouting.
“Check the furnace!”
Detective Ruiz stopped.
“What furnace?”
Preston laughed helplessly.
“The house.”
He looked directly at Claire.
“She is burning everything.”
Police raced to the Hale residence.
By the time they arrived, smoke was pouring from the basement windows.
Lorraine stood on the front lawn in a fur coat, claiming an electrical malfunction had started the fire.
Ethan was nowhere to be found.
Firefighters contained the flames before the house was destroyed.
Inside the basement furnace, investigators found half-burned financial records.
They also found a metal box containing passports, cash, and photographs of Claire taken over several months.
Lorraine had been preparing to flee.
The hidden smoke-detector camera survived because its storage system transmitted files remotely.
The recordings showed Lorraine and Ethan arguing after Claire left in the ambulance.
“You went too far,” Ethan said.
Lorraine slapped him.
“She found Black Orchard.”
“I can control her.”
“You could not control her hand.”
Then Lorraine said something Claire replayed three times.
“If she reaches the farmhouse, she’ll learn who you really are.”
Ethan responded quietly.
“She already suspects.”
Richard looked at Claire.
“What does that mean?”
Claire remembered Ethan’s birth certificate.
She had seen it years earlier.
The father’s name had been left blank.
Lorraine had always claimed it was a clerical mistake.
Richard sat down.
“He is not my son.”
The silence that followed felt heavier than the fire.
Then Detective Ruiz received a call from the hospital security desk.
Ethan had entered the building using another man’s identification.
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He was standing outside Claire’s room.
And he was carrying a gun.
