Chapter 2 - The Device Was Still Recording Dr. Harris did not move
closer.
That was the first thing Nora noticed.
He stood three feet from Victor’s gold chair, staring into the open
black case as if crossing that distance might make whatever he had
recognized more dangerous.
Victor’s hand still covered the tiny mechanism beneath the false lining.
“Explain yourself,” Victor said.
Dr. Harris finally looked at him.
“Take your hand away.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“This is my case.”
“I know.”
“Then tell me what you think you’re looking at.”
Dr. Harris glanced toward the security guard.
“Mr. Kane, move your hand away from the device.”
The guard stepped forward.
Victor did not.
Emily clung to Nora’s dress.
Her eyes remained fixed on the case.
“It’s blinking,” she whispered.
Everyone looked.
A faint green light pulsed beneath Victor’s fingers.
Once.
Twice.
Then again.
Dr. Harris went pale.
“It’s active.”
Victor jerked his hand away.
“What is active?”
Dr. Harris leaned over without touching the mechanism.
“A recording module.”
Nora frowned.
“For medical data?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Victor stared at him.
“What kind of recording?”
“Audio. Possibly wireless transmission.”
Silence swallowed the penthouse.
Victor looked down at the case as if it belonged to someone else.
“That’s impossible.”
Emily tugged Nora’s sleeve.
“It was making the tiny sound.”
Nora looked at her.
“What sound?”
“The little click.”
Dr. Harris turned.
“You heard it before you opened the case?”
Emily nodded.
“Every time Grandpa talked.”
Victor’s expression changed.
Nora looked between them.
Emily called Victor Grandpa even though he was technically her
great-uncle. He had raised Nora after her parents died, and Emily had
never known him as anything else.
Dr. Harris crouched slightly.
“Emily, when did you first hear the clicking?”
She thought carefully.
“Yesterday.”
Victor frowned.
“The case wasn’t here yesterday.”
Emily pointed toward the hallway.
“Yes, it was.”
Nora looked at Victor.
“You told me you brought it from the clinic this morning.”
“I did.”
Emily shook her head.
“No. The doctor man had it.”
Dr. Harris stopped breathing.
“What doctor man?”
“The one with the silver glasses.”
Victor looked at Harris.
Harris did not wear glasses.
Nora felt Emily tighten against her.
“He came when Grandpa was sleeping.”
Victor’s voice dropped.
“When?”
“Last night.”
Nobody had reported a visitor.
Security checked the building log.
No doctor had entered the penthouse.
Victor stood abruptly.
The case slid from his lap onto the chair.
“Search the apartment.”
The guard called downstairs.
Dr. Harris remained focused on the device.
“There’s something else.”
He pointed to a narrow transparent tube hidden beneath the false bottom.
A trace of dried red material remained inside.
Nora’s stomach tightened.
“Is that blood?”
“Possibly.”
Victor stared.
“My blood?”
Dr. Harris did not answer.
He lifted the removable lining with gloved hands.
Beneath it lay three sealed sample vials.
Each had a handwritten label.
V.K.
N.B.
And E.B.
Nora recognized the initials immediately.
Victor Kane.
Nora Bennett.
Emily Bennett.
She pulled Emily closer.
“Why is my daughter’s name inside your medical case?”
Victor looked genuinely stunned.
“I don’t know.”
Nora stared at him.
For years Victor always had an answer.
Now he had none.
Dr. Harris examined the vials.
“These aren’t standard clinic labels.”
Victor looked at him.
“Then whose are they?”
Harris’s eyes moved to the third vial.
Emily’s.
“I don’t know yet.”
Then the security guard returned.
His face was tense.
“Mr. Kane, we found someone in the service corridor.”
Victor turned.
“Who?”
The guard held up a silver pair of eyeglasses.
Emily gasped.
“That’s him.”
The guard continued.
“The man was gone before we reached the stairwell.”
Nora felt cold.
“But he left this.”
He handed Victor a white envelope.
Victor opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
A hospital nursery.
A newborn baby.
On the back, someone had written:
ASK HARRIS WHY EMILY’S SAMPLE MATCHED THE CHILD WHO DIED SEVEN YEARS
AGO.
Nora slowly looked at Dr. Harris.
May you like
His face had gone completely white.
And this time, he could not pretend he did not understand.
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