Chapter 16 - The Doctor
Dr. Alan Reese had treated Ava for eight months.
He had told Ethan that memory gaps were normal.
He had increased Ava’s sedatives twice.
He had signed the letter recommending that “family members assist with major financial decisions.”
Now Brooks knew why.
When police arrived at his clinic, Reese tried to leave through the parking garage.
He was arrested beside his car.
Under questioning, he denied everything for six hours.
Then detectives showed him the messages.
His story changed.
Pike had paid him.
First to alter a medication order the night of the crash.
Then to exaggerate Ava’s cognitive symptoms.
Then to keep prescribing medications Margaret could control.
“How much?” Ava asked Brooks.
“Four hundred and sixty thousand over eighteen months.”
Ethan stared at the floor.
“This many people.”
“That’s how long schemes survive,” Brooks said. “Not because one person is powerful. Because several people decide silence is profitable.”
Reese gave investigators one piece of information Margaret did not know.
Pike had a private office under another name in Manhattan.
Police raided it.
They found passports, cash, encrypted drives, and a draft agreement selling Monroe Biologics patents to an overseas buyer.
No Pike.
But on one laptop they recovered a live access token.
He was still logging into the company network.
Ava met with her cybersecurity team.
“Can we track him?”
“Maybe,” the chief said. “If he connects again.”
“Can we make him connect?”
The room became quiet.
Ava had an idea.
She announced publicly that the company’s experimental drug-delivery patent had failed final validation.
If true, the patents Pike wanted would lose most of their value.
Within fourteen minutes, an encrypted account accessed the underlying research files.
The trace began.
Thirty seconds.
Forty.
Fifty-two.
Connection dropped.
But it was enough.
Location: a marina in Stamford.
Brooks moved.
Ava watched from a command room.
Police surrounded a forty-eight-foot yacht.
No one came out.
Officers boarded.
The cabin was empty.
A laptop sat open on the table.
The coffee beside it was still warm.
Pike had escaped minutes earlier.
Then Ava’s phone rang.
Private number.
She answered.
“Ava,” Pike said.
“You’re running out of places.”
He laughed softly.
“You still think I’m the one running.”
“What do you want?”
“Your father’s archive.”
“Police have it.”
“Not all of it.”
Ava’s pulse changed.
“What are you talking about?”
“The last ledger.”
Ava said nothing.
Pike continued.
“Samuel hid one physical ledger outside the blue room. It contains names your police detective will not want published.”
Brooks looked up sharply.
Pike knew she was listening.
May you like
Then he said the line that changed everything.
“Ask Nina Brooks what happened to her father in 2007.”
