Chapter 7 - The Woman With the Red Bird
Marcus read Priya’s note twice.
His expression did not change.
“That’s convenient.”
“Why would she warn me about you?”
“Perhaps because someone frightened her.”
“Or because she discovered something.”
He stood.
“Your mother is under federal protection. Priya did not have authorization to enter or leave the secure floor without an escort.”
“Then how did she disappear?”
“We’re checking the cameras.”
Footage showed Priya entering an elevator alone. The elevator descended to the parking garage, but she never appeared on any camera there.
Her vehicle remained untouched.
Her phone was found inside a trash container.
She had either been taken through a blind spot or left voluntarily with someone who knew the building.
When I returned to Mom’s room, she was sitting upright.
“What happened?”
“Priya called me,” she said.
“When?”
“Ten minutes before she disappeared.”
“What did she say?”
“She asked whether I remembered a woman named Laura.”
“Laura Kemp?”
Mom nodded.
“She came to the house once. Chloe made me stay in the pantry while Julian spoke to her.”
“Did Priya say why she was asking?”
“She said Laura was her aunt.”
That connection explained why Priya recognized the tattoo.
It also gave her a reason to fear the investigation.
“Did she mention Marcus?”
“She said he worked for Crown.”
I looked toward the security officers outside.
Marcus Bell had worked beside me for nine years. He had investigated corruption, fraud, and organized financial crimes. He knew how evidence moved through our office.
He knew how complaints could disappear.
And he had been the first person I called.
“What exactly did Priya say?”
“She said Marcus was the one who told Julian where Rachel was.”
My heart pounded.
“Did she have proof?”
“She said she found a message on Laura’s computer.”
“Where is Laura now?”
Mom looked confused.
“I thought you knew.”
“Knew what?”
“She was here.”
“When?”
“This morning. Before I got sick.”
A woman wearing hospital scrubs had entered Mom’s room before the false doctor injected her. Mom remembered a red bird tattoo above the glove on her wrist.
Laura Kemp had helped create the false guardianship plan.
She had also been present during the attempted murder.
And Priya may have confronted her.
I did not call Marcus.
Instead, I contacted FBI Special Agent Dana Ruiz, whom I knew from a public corruption case five years earlier.
I explained enough to make her listen but withheld Mom’s location until Dana agreed to meet in person.
We met inside a twenty-four-hour diner three blocks from the federal courthouse.
Dana arrived alone.
She was forty-four, precise, and almost impossible to intimidate.
“Marcus Bell is assigned to the task force investigating Crown,” she said.
“He never told me Crown was already under investigation.”
“He couldn’t.”
“How long?”
“Four years.”
“Four years?”
“We suspected the company was concealing political payments and foreign assets, but every potential witness withdrew, disappeared, or changed their statement.”
“Was my father a target?”
“He was a confidential source.”
The words struck harder than I expected.
“Dad was working with the FBI?”
“For eight months before his death.”
“Did you investigate the death?”
“We requested an autopsy.”
“There wasn’t one.”
“Your brother objected on religious grounds. Your mother signed the refusal.”
Mom had been heavily medicated in the days after Dad died. Julian handled every hospice document.
“He forged it.”
“Possibly.”
“Why did no one tell me?”
“Your father demanded that you be kept out of it.”
“Why?”
“He believed Crown had people inside the state government.”
“Marcus?”
“We don’t know.”
I showed Dana Priya’s note.
She photographed it.
“Do not contact Bell again,” she said. “But do not let him know you suspect him.”
“Where is Priya?”
“We’ll find her.”
“And Rachel?”
Dana’s eyes shifted.
The pause told me there was more.
“What aren’t you saying?”
“The plane that left the private airfield never reached Montreal.”
“Where did it go?”
“It crashed seventy miles north of the border.”
My throat tightened.
“Bodies?”
“Two confirmed. The pilot and an unidentified female passenger.”
“Rachel?”
“Dental comparison is pending.”
I closed my eyes.
Rachel had tried to help Mom and may have died because of it.
Dana continued.
“Before takeoff, the pilot transmitted a mechanical concern. Investigators found evidence that a fuel line had been cut.”
“Someone destroyed the plane to silence her.”
“That is one possibility.”
“What is the other?”
“That the crash was staged.”
She placed a photograph on the table.
It showed the wreckage burning in a wooded field.
Near the edge of the image, footprints led away from the plane.
Two sets.
“The female body had no hands and severe facial trauma,” Dana said. “Identification may take time.”
“Rachel could still be alive.”
“Yes.”
My phone rang.
Marcus.
Dana nodded for me to answer.
“Elena,” he said, “Priya has been found.”
“Where?”
“Inside Laura Kemp’s house.”
“Alive?”
“Yes, but injured.”
“What happened?”
“She claims Laura attacked her.”
“Where is Laura?”
“Dead.”
Dana wrote a question on a napkin.
HOW?
“How did she die?” I asked.
“Single gunshot wound.”
“Who fired?”
“Priya says she did, in self-defense.”
“Was there a weapon?”
“Yes.”
“Registered to whom?”
Marcus paused.
“To your mother.”
Mom had never owned a gun.
The handgun from Julian’s study had been registered to Julian, not her.
Someone had purchased another weapon using Mom’s identity.
“Priya wants to speak with you,” Marcus said.
“Put her on.”
A weak voice came through the phone.
“Elena?”
“I’m here.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What happened?”
“I found Laura. She admitted she helped Julian drug Martha. Then someone entered the house.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t see his face. He shot Laura and put the gun in my hand.”
“Where are you injured?”
“My head.”
“Why did you write that I shouldn’t trust Marcus?”
Silence.
“Priya?”
“I didn’t write that note.”
The line went dead.
Dana and I looked at each other.
Someone had taken Priya’s badge, left a false warning, and attempted to turn me against the lead investigator.
That meant Marcus might be innocent.
Or Priya was being forced to protect him.
Before we could decide, Dana received an encrypted message from her office.
She read it once, then turned the screen toward me.
Technicians had recovered metadata from Rachel’s lake cabin video.
It had not been recorded recently.
The date stamp was nearly four years old.
Three months before my father died.
Julian had been planning to declare Mom incompetent long before she showed any signs of confusion.
And the video’s original owner was not Rachel.
The device used to record it belonged to my father.
Rachel had somehow obtained his phone.
The final recovered file was an unsent text message addressed to me.
Elena, Julian knows I spoke to the FBI. If anything happens to me, look beneath Martha’s birthday candles.
Mom’s birthday cake was still inside Julian’s house.
May you like
And the county forensic team had already cleared the kitchen for release.
By sunrise, Julian would be legally permitted to return.
