Chapter 10 - The Missing Bottle
The footage was powerful, but Rachel’s attorney attacked it immediately.
The bottle could have contained medicine.
Walter’s collapse could have been natural.
The camera timestamp might have been altered.
By morning, Rachel had been released pending investigation.
Lucas remained under suspicion for the fire because traces of accelerant were found on his work jacket.
“That’s impossible,” Lucas said.
Detective Alvarez examined the evidence report.
“Did Rachel ever visit your workplace?”
“She brought me dinner yesterday.”
Lucas remembered her hugging him from behind while he changed near his locker.
She had planted the chemical on him before leaving Walter locked upstairs.
It was not just an escape plan.
It was a complete frame.
Rachel had expected Walter’s death, the fire, and Lucas’s arrest.
At the hospital, Walter regained enough strength to speak with investigators.
He confirmed Lucas had rescued him.
But Charles claimed Walter had dementia and could not be trusted.
Rachel produced a medical evaluation signed by a respected neurologist.
The report declared Walter legally incompetent.
Walter read it from his hospital bed.
“I have never met this doctor.”
Nora recognized the physician’s name.
Dr. Stephen Vale had operated the private facility where Emily was confined.
The same man had signed Emily’s false death certificate.
Detective Alvarez issued a warrant for his records.
Hours later, they discovered his clinic empty.
Computers were gone.
Patient files had been burned behind the building.
Dr. Vale had disappeared.
Lucas sat beside Walter’s hospital bed, exhausted.
“I should have seen what Rachel was.”
“You saw what she allowed you to see.”
“That doesn’t excuse me.”
“No,” Walter said. “But it means your decency was used against you. Do not let her turn it into shame.”
A nurse entered with a package addressed to Lucas.
There was no return name.
Inside was Rachel’s missing bottle.
A note had been wrapped around it.
“I can prove who ordered the poison, but only if Lucas comes alone.”
A location and time appeared beneath the message.
Midnight.
May you like
The abandoned St. Catherine’s Hospital.
👉 Someone had stolen the poison from Rachel—and now that witness wanted Lucas alone inside the hospital where his mother had disappeared.
