Chapter 13 - Susan

I got back to St. Matthew's in seventeen minutes.

Susan Hale was not in Claire's room.

She was in a conference room with hospital security and Detective Ramirez.

She had come voluntarily.

That surprised me.

What surprised me more was that she looked terrified.

"Evelyn is going to blame me for everything," she said before I even sat down.

Ramirez warned her that she should consider counsel.

Susan laughed bitterly.

"Counsel won't help if Evelyn decides to destroy me."

I leaned forward.

"What did you do?"

Susan looked at me.

"I accessed Claire's chart. I changed contact information. I added the behavioral note."

My hands curled into fists.

"You forged the power of attorney?"

"No."

"You witnessed it."

"I signed a blank witness page. Evelyn told me it was for a family trust amendment."

Ramirez asked, "Why did you help her access medical information?"

Susan wiped her eyes.

"Because she had something on me."

"What?"

Susan looked at the photograph I had brought from the nursery.

Her face changed.

"Where did you get that?"

"My mother left it."

Susan closed her eyes.

"Your father and I had an affair."

The sentence landed without sound.

I stared at her.

"For how long?"

"Three years. It ended before he got sick. Evelyn found out after he died. She found emails."

I felt strangely numb.

My father had been dead six years. I had spent those six years believing he had been the decent parent.

Apparently decency had been another family story with good marketing.

"So my mother blackmailed you."

Susan nodded.

"At first she wanted appointment times. Then lab results. Then she asked me to put notes into Claire's chart. I told her no. She sent screenshots of the emails to my husband."

"And you did it."

"Yes."

"You could have gone to the police."

"I was scared."

I almost said Claire had been scared too.

But Claire hadn't altered medical records.

Ramirez asked, "What is the other plan?"

Susan went pale.

"I don't know exactly."

"Try."

"Evelyn said if Claire refused the induction, she had someone who could make the situation look urgent."

My stomach dropped.

"Who?"

Susan shook her head.

"A private nurse, maybe. A man named Cole. That's all I heard."

I remembered Rosa's description.

Gray jacket. Around fifty.

Ramirez asked one more question.

"Where is Evelyn now?"

Susan whispered, "If she followed the plan, she's going to the family house on Lake Mercer."

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"And she has Claire's medication bag."