Chapter 7 - Someone Changed the Bottle
The emergency doctor told me we had been lucky.
Lucky.
I wanted to put the word through a wall.
Mother had taken one pill, not two. Clara had found her within minutes. The stronger dose had dropped her blood pressure hard, but not long enough to cause permanent damage.
By midnight she was stable.
By twelve ten, I had locked down the mansion.
Nobody left.
Not staff. Not contractors. Not family.
Leo reviewed delivery logs while I stood in the kitchen with the pharmacist on speakerphone.
"The bottle left us sealed," she said. "Correct dosage. We have video."
"Send it."
"Already uploading."
Clara sat at the island, arms wrapped around herself.
"This happened because of me."
"No."
"If I hadn't come here—"
"Stop."
She looked up.
"Marcus did this because the truth is moving. That's on him, not you."
"You don't know it was Marcus."
"No. I know somebody wants us scared."
"Are you?"
I considered lying.
"Yes."
That surprised her.
"Good," I said. "Fear keeps me from being stupid."
Leo entered carrying a clear evidence bag.
"We found the original cap in the laundry chute."
"Prints?"
"Smudged. But there's more."
He showed me the hallway camera.
At 5:14 p.m., a figure in housekeeping whites entered the medication room.
Cap low. Face turned away.
The build looked like Clara.
Exactly like Clara.
She stood so fast her chair scraped the floor.
"That isn't me."
Leo said nothing.
I replayed it.
The figure used Clara's access badge.
My jaw tightened.
"Where was your badge?"
"On me."
"All day?"
"I think so."
"Think?"
Her eyes flashed. "I changed Mother's sheets around four. I left my apron in the laundry room for maybe ten minutes."
Leo checked the access system.
"Badge was cloned. Two entries at the same time. One in the east laundry. One at the medication room."
Clara exhaled.
Then her face changed.
"Who can clone a Hale badge?"
Leo answered. "Security administration."
I looked at him.
He understood immediately.
"Three people," he said. "Me. My deputy. And the outside consultant who installed the system."
"Name."
"Derek Voss."
I knew it.
Marcus's former investigator.
I called Marcus at twelve twenty-seven.
He answered on the second ring.
"Bennett, it's late."
"Did you send Derek Voss into my house?"
Silence.
Then a sigh.
"You need sleep."
"My mother almost died tonight."
His voice changed.
"What happened?"
Too smooth.
"Wrong medication."
"I'm sorry."
"Are you?"
He paused.
"You are dangerously close to accusing me of something you cannot prove."
"Then come over tomorrow and help me prove I am wrong."
Another pause.
"I have court."
"Cancel it."
He laughed once. "You sound like your father."
May you like
"Good. He left me a message about you."
The line went dead.
