Chapter 2 - FIFTY MISSED CALLSDavid sat alone in a sterile interrogation room while the clock above the door clicked toward midnight.
He had refused a lawyer.
He had refused water.
He had refused everything except one question.
“Where is Maya?”
Nobody answered.
Finally the door opened.
A woman in a gray federal suit entered carrying a tablet.
She placed it on the table.
“My name is Special Agent Rachel Donovan.”
David looked up.
“I need to see my wife.”
“You will.”
“When?”
“When she believes you're ready to hear the truth.”
David slammed his palm against the table.
“My daughter is dead!”
Donovan did not flinch.
“And you missed her death because you were on a yacht with another woman.”
David's face collapsed.
“I didn't know.”
“No.”
She activated the tablet.
“You didn't know because you deliberately made yourself unreachable.”
The first video appeared.
David heard his own voice.
“Maya, stop calling me.”
Another recording.
“I need space.”
Another.
“Don't ruin this trip.”
Another.
Then Lily's hospital room appeared.
Maya stood beside the bed.
Her hair was wet with rain.
Her eyes were swollen.
A nurse entered.
Maya looked at the phone.
“No answer?”
The nurse shook her head.
Maya began crying.
“I called him fifty times.”
David closed his eyes.
“Stop.”
Donovan paused the video.
“You haven't seen the worst part.”
David opened his eyes.
She played another clip.
A doctor stood beside Lily's bed.
“Maya, we have reason to suspect an unusual toxin may have entered her system.”
Maya looked stunned.
“What?”
“The blood panel doesn't match a normal meningitis progression.”
David sat forward.
Donovan paused again.
“You see?”
“What toxin?”
“We don't know yet.”
David swallowed.
“Then why blame me?”
“We didn't.”
She slid another photograph across the table.
A laboratory report.
At the top was his company's medical subsidiary.
Vance Therapeutics.
David stared.
“No.”
Donovan watched him.
“Lily's infection came from a rare strain that was being studied by one of your laboratories.”
“That doesn't mean anything.”
“It means someone inside your organization had access to it.”
David stood.
“I want my lawyer.”
Donovan nodded.
“Finally.”
She walked to the door, then stopped.
“One more thing.”
David looked at her.
“Your wife never told the media that Lily died.”
“Why?”
“Because she didn't want you to learn about the funeral from television.”
He looked confused.
Donovan continued.
“She wanted you to hear it from her.”
David's breathing slowed.
“When?”
“She tried.”
David stared.
“Then why didn't she?”
Donovan looked directly into his eyes.
“Because someone broke into the hospital the night Lily died.”
David's face went pale.
“What?”
“The cameras were disabled for eleven minutes.”
“And?”
“During those eleven minutes, someone entered Lily's room.”
David whispered,
“Who?”
Donovan leaned toward him.
“Your assistant.”
David's heart stopped.
“Ethan?”
She nodded.
“Ethan Cole.”
“No. Ethan would never…”
Donovan placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Ethan standing outside Lily's hospital room.
At 8:31 p.m.
Twelve minutes before Lily died.
David stared at the photograph.
Then another image appeared.
Ethan leaving the hospital.
Carrying a black case.
David whispered,
“What was in the case?”
Donovan replied,
“We don't know.”
She picked up her tablet.
“But your wife does.”
David looked toward the door.
“Let me see her.”
Donovan opened the door.
“You will.”
Then she turned back.
“But first, David…”
He waited.
“Tell me why your assistant had access to Lily.”
David's mouth went dry.
“I never gave him permission.”
Donovan smiled without warmth.
“That's the problem.”
She walked out.
David remained frozen.
Because suddenly he remembered something.
Two weeks before the yacht trip, Ethan had asked him for a favor.
A tiny favor.
Access to the Vance family medical records.
David had signed the request without reading it.
At the time, he had thought it was routine.
Now he wondered what he had actually authorized.
And somewhere outside that room, Maya was holding the answer.
May you like
But she wasn't waiting to forgive him.
She was waiting to destroy him.
