Chapter 8 - THE DOCTOR WHO NEVER LEFT BOSTON
Michael screamed into the phone.
“GET VALE AWAY FROM MY SON!”
On the live feed, Dr. Simon Vale turned toward the ICU camera.
Almost as if he heard Michael.
Then Vale raised both hands.
The nurse backed away.
Hospital security entered ten seconds later.
Vale did not resist.
He simply sat in a chair beside Noah.
Michael reached Mass General seventeen minutes later.
He entered the secured consultation room ready to break every bone in Vale’s body.
The doctor looked seventy.
Calm.
Tired.
Still wearing the Carter family physician confidence Michael had trusted since childhood.
“You poisoned my son.”
Vale shook his head.
“No.”
“My wife?”
“No.”
“You altered medical records.”
“Yes.”
Michael stopped.
The easy confession destabilized him.
Vale continued.
“I changed records under orders.”
“Edward.”
“Sometimes.”
“Victoria?”
“No.”
“Who poisoned Noah?”
Vale looked toward the one-way glass.
“I don’t know.”
Michael grabbed the table.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
“Why are you here?”
“To stop the person who does know.”
Michael stared.
“You supposedly flew to Switzerland.”
“I booked the flight.”
“You didn’t board.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody accessed Olivia’s old medical file yesterday.”
“Who?”
Vale’s expression tightened.
“Frank Miller.”
Michael stopped breathing.
“No.”
“Ask him.”
Michael stepped closer.
“Frank has been with me since I was a teenager.”
“Exactly.”
That sentence landed badly.
Vale leaned back.
“Your father is controlling. Victoria is ambitious. Your family is dishonest.”
“Excellent diagnosis.”
“But neither of them has access to every layer of your private security.”
“Frank does.”
“Yes.”
Michael shook his head.
“Frank’s credentials were copied.”
“Were they?”
Silence.
Vale pushed a folder across the table.
“Your wife came to me ten months ago.”
“Why?”
“She suspected someone had been manipulating trust-triggering medical events.”
“And you admitted it?”
“Eventually.”
“Why?”
Vale looked tired.
“Because I had spent twenty years telling myself paperwork never killed anyone.”
Emily’s little brother.
Daniel.
Olivia.
Noah.
Michael felt rage returning.
“What did Frank ask you for yesterday?”
“Olivia’s toxicology file.”
“Why?”
“He said you requested it.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“Did you give it to him?”
“No.”
Vale looked toward the door.
“That is why I am sitting here.”
Michael stood.
Frank was outside.
Emily was with him.
Michael opened the door.
Frank looked up.
“What did he say?”
Michael stared at the man who had saved his life twice.
The man who had stood beside him at Olivia’s funeral.
The man who had held six-day-old Noah while Michael signed hospital paperwork.
“Did you request Olivia’s toxicology file yesterday?”
Frank did not answer immediately.
Emily looked at him.
“Frank?”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Michael felt almost nothing.
“Why?”
Frank looked through the glass at Vale.
“Because I needed to know what he found.”
“For me?”
“No.”
Honest.
Finally.
“For who?”
Frank rubbed a hand across his face.
“For Victoria.”
Michael stared.
Emily whispered:
“You work for her.”
“Not the way you think.”
“Everything tonight is apparently not the way I think.”
Frank looked at Michael.
“Victoria contacted me three weeks before Olivia died. She believed Edward was using Vale to manipulate medical certifications.”
“So you helped her.”
“Yes.”
“Did Olivia know?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t I?”
“Because Olivia didn’t trust your reaction.”
Michael laughed bitterly.
“Everyone protected me by lying.”
Frank nodded.
“That is fair.”
“Where is Victoria?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is my father?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who poisoned Noah?”
Frank’s face hardened.
“I thought Edward.”
“And now?”
“I don’t know.”
Vale spoke from behind them.
“I do know one thing.”
They turned.
“The substance used tonight was not available through the Carter medical network.”
“Then where?”
Vale looked at Emily.
“Property management.”
Emily froze.
“What?”
“The compound was used years ago in a fumigation incident connected to low-income housing owned by a Carter subsidiary.”
Emily’s face emptied.
“My brother.”
Her little brother.
The child who had died when she was fifteen.
Vale nodded.
Michael felt the room tilt.
“That building belonged to us?”
Vale looked at him.
“Indirectly.”
Emily stared at Frank.
“You knew?”
Frank whispered:
“No.”
Vale continued.
“The incident report was sealed after a settlement.”
“Who approved it?”
Michael asked.
Vale looked at him.
“Your father.”
Emily stepped backward.
Years before Noah was born.
Years before Olivia died.
The Carter family had already crossed Emily’s life.
Her brother’s death had not merely taught her how to save Noah.
It had been connected to the same people trying to kill him.
Emily’s voice shook.
“Who managed that property?”
Vale did not answer.
Michael knew from his face.
“Say it.”
Vale whispered:
“Miller Property Services.”
Everyone turned toward Frank.
Frank looked genuinely confused.
Michael’s blood went cold.
“Miller.”
Frank slowly shook his head.
“It wasn’t mine.”
“Whose?”
Frank’s face changed.
“My brother’s.”
Michael stared.
“You have a brother?”
Frank closed his eyes.
“Had.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“Let me guess.”
May you like
Frank looked at her.
“He’s supposed to be dead.”
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