Chapter 4 - Rachel Reveals a Second Agreement
Rachel sat in the library with two security officers nearby.
Daniel remained by the door.
Vanessa was not permitted inside.
“You have five minutes.”
Rachel looked exhausted.
“Vanessa hired me.”
“I know.”
“No. She hired me before your mother needed a caregiver.”
Daniel frowned.
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
Eleanor had fallen in her bathroom four months earlier.
That incident led Daniel to seek in-home assistance.
Vanessa had suggested Rachel’s agency.
“You were waiting?”
Rachel nodded.
“For Eleanor to need help?”
“For a way inside.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“What were you looking for?”
“The same thing Vanessa told you.”
“The ledger.”
“Yes.”
“And the sedative?”
Rachel looked away.
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“What did you give my mother?”
“Zolpidem.”
He knew the name.
A sleep medication.
“She wasn’t prescribed it.”
“No.”
“Where did you get it?”
Rachel’s eyes filled.
“Vanessa.”
Daniel stared.
Rachel reached into her bag.
Security had already searched it.
She removed a folded document.
An agreement.
Vanessa Reed’s signature appeared at the bottom.
Rachel Morgan’s beneath it.
The language was vague.
Research assistance.
Document recovery.
Confidential compensation.
Fifty thousand dollars.
Daniel read it twice.
“What does ‘document recovery’ mean?”
“Find the ledger.”
“And the medication?”
“Vanessa said Eleanor had insomnia and sometimes wandered at night. She
said the pills were already approved.”
“You never checked?”
Rachel looked ashamed.
“No.”
“You’re a professional caregiver.”
“I know.”
“You hid it in another container.”
“Because Eleanor refused it.”
Daniel’s anger sharpened.
“So you knew she didn’t want it.”
“Yes.”
Rachel began crying.
“I made a terrible decision.”
Daniel did not comfort her.
“What was in the water?”
“Nothing.”
“Why did my mother tell me to check it?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel studied her.
“Who deleted the footage?”
“Vanessa.”
“How do you know?”
“I watched her do it.”
“Why?”
“She found something in Eleanor’s room.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“What?”
“A key.”
Rachel described a small brass key with a red thread tied through its
head.
Vanessa had found it behind a framed photograph.
Then she noticed the camera.
She went downstairs and deleted the recording.
“What did the key open?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel thought of his mother.
Check the water.
Perhaps Eleanor had not meant the contents.
Perhaps she meant the glass itself.
He returned to the hospital with the photograph.
Eleanor was awake.
“Mom, what did you mean by check the water?”
She frowned.
“The glass.”
“What about it?”
“The bottom.”
Daniel picked up the duplicate bedside glass hospital staff had brought
with her belongings.
“No. The one from home.”
The suspicious glass was already in evidence.
Eleanor whispered, “Your father gave me a set of six.”
Daniel waited.
“One broke years ago.”
“So?”
“It didn’t break.”
Her eyes sharpened.
“I broke it.”
“Why?”
“Because something was hidden inside the base.”
Daniel felt cold.
“What?”
“A piece of paper.”
“What did it say?”
Eleanor looked toward the hospital door.
“Four numbers.”
“Which numbers?”
“1987.”
Daniel stared.
His birth year.
Eleanor shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“It wasn’t your birth year when Thomas wrote it.”
Daniel did the math.
His father had written those numbers before Daniel was born.
Then Eleanor said the sentence that changed the entire search.
May you like
“1987 wasn’t a year.”
“It was the combination to a safe.”
