Chapter 7 - THE FIRST WOMAN
Rebecca enlarged the names.
AMANDA.
JULIA.
KAREN.
SOPHIE.
MELISSA.
EMILY.
Each had a date beside it.
The earliest was nine years old.
Daniel and I had been married for only four.
Rebecca searched public records while I remained in the hospital. Four women matched the first four names. Each had been treated by Lauren Vale. Each had died by suicide or accident after leaving substantial assets to a husband or guardian.
The fifth, Melissa Grant, had disappeared.
Her case was still open.
Daniel was not acting alone.
He was part of something older.
Rebecca contacted Detective Lena Ortiz, a financial-crimes investigator who had once questioned Lauren’s clinic. Ortiz arrived after midnight in plain clothes.
She watched the videos without speaking.
Then she showed me a photograph of Melissa Grant.
I recognized her.
“She worked at Daniel’s office.”
Ortiz leaned forward. “When?”
“Three years ago. Daniel said she stole client files and ran away.”
Melissa had sent Ortiz an email before disappearing. It contained one sentence:
They make wives disappear without killing them.
Ortiz believed Lauren, Judge Hale, and several husbands had used psychiatric declarations, forged deaths, and guardianship orders to steal property and children.
But she had never found a living victim willing to testify.
“I’m willing,” I said.
Daniel entered before she could answer.
He carried flowers.
A security guard followed him, holding the judge’s release order.
Daniel placed the flowers on my table.
“You look tired.”
Ortiz identified herself.
Daniel smiled. “Financial crimes? My wife must be telling wonderful stories.”
Rebecca stepped between us.
“She will not leave with you.”
The guard displayed the order.
“She has to.”
Daniel leaned close enough that only I could hear.
“The basement is already gone.”
I looked at his hands.
Gray cement dust filled the lines around his nails.
He had sealed the room before police arrived.
As the guard prepared the wheelchair, Priya appeared at the doorway in street clothes.
“I found something,” she said.
She held up a sealed specimen bag containing the syringe Lauren had dropped in the garage.
Mr. Bennett had retrieved it before police took him home.
The liquid inside matched the veterinary sedative in my blood.
Daniel’s face remained calm.
Lauren’s did not.
She had entered the hallway behind him.
Priya turned toward Detective Ortiz.
“This has her fingerprints.”
Lauren stepped backward.
Ortiz moved toward her.
Then the fire alarm sounded.
Sprinklers erupted overhead.
In the confusion, Lauren ran.
Daniel did not follow.
He watched me.
May you like
Because the distraction had never been meant to save Lauren.
It was meant to let him take the flash drive from beneath my pillow.
