Chapter 3 - THE CAREGIVER WHO LEFT BY AMBULANCE
By breakfast, I knew one of the previous caregivers hadn’t simply quit.
Her name was Marissa Cole.
Adrian tried not to react when I said it.
That was confirmation enough.
“What happened to her?”
“She fell down the stairs.”
“Accident?”
“Yes.”
“Did she find a photograph of Elena first?”
Silence.
I placed the picture on his desk.
His face changed.
“Where did you get this?”
“Under my door.”
Adrian pressed an intercom button.
Within seconds, security entered.
He ordered the hallway camera footage pulled.
There was nothing.
Someone knew where the blind spots were.
That frightened him.
It frightened me more.
“Who is Marissa?”
I asked again.
Adrian looked tired for the first time.
“She was caregiver number nine.”
“What did she say before she fell?”
His eyes met mine.
“That someone had been inside Elena’s room.”
My pulse changed.
“Was she right?”
“I don’t know.”
“You have cameras everywhere.”
“Not in the family wing.”
“Convenient.”
Adrian’s mouth tightened.
“Privacy mattered to my wife.”
“Apparently someone else appreciated that too.”
He didn’t argue.
I asked for Marissa’s number.
“No.”
“Then I’ll find it myself.”
He almost smiled.
“You’re irritating.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
I found Marissa by noon.
She worked at a daycare center in Stamford.
She refused to speak when I first called.
Then I mentioned Evan.
She went quiet.
“You’re still there?”
“Yes.”
“Leave.”
“I need to know what happened.”
“No, you need to leave.”
“Did one of the boys push you?”
Marissa laughed once.
Bitterly.
“No.”
That mattered.
“Then why does everyone think they did?”
“Because that’s what someone wanted.”
I stepped into an empty pantry and closed the door.
“Who?”
“I never saw them.”
“What happened?”
Marissa explained.
She found Evan crying outside Elena’s locked room.
He had stolen a key from Adrian’s desk.
They went inside.
The room had been preserved almost exactly as Elena left it.
Clothes.
Books.
Perfume.
Photographs.
And one hidden envelope taped beneath a dresser.
“What was inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“You opened it?”
“No.”
Before she could, someone entered the hallway.
Marissa shoved the envelope into her sweater.
Then the lights went out.
She remembered hands.
A shove.
Falling.
Three broken ribs.
Concussion.
“Why didn’t you tell police?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“They said camera footage showed nobody else on that floor.”
“Did you believe them?”
“No.”
Neither did I.
“What happened to the envelope?”
Silence.
“Marissa?”
“I still have it.”
My heart stopped.
“Why?”
“Because after I woke up, a man came to my hospital room and offered me fifty thousand dollars to forget it existed.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t know his name.”
“What did he look like?”
Marissa described him.
Tall.
Silver hair.
Scar through one eyebrow.
I had seen him that morning.
He had poured Adrian’s coffee.
His name was Grant Vale.
Adrian’s older brother.
May you like
And Marissa whispered:
“He told me Elena’s children would be safer if I never came back.”
