Chapter 2 - The Locked Door
The jet banked so sharply my glass slid off the table and shattered against the wall.
I did not care.
“Police are six minutes out,” Lena said. “Paramedics are with them.”
“Get Dr. Patel on the phone.”
She called twice before he answered.
“Ethan? I’m between patients.”
“Did you prescribe Henry anything today?”
A beat of silence.
“No.”
“Anything this week?”
“No. Why?”
I looked at the frozen image of my son lying on the kitchen floor.
“What happens if a child is given medication that isn’t his?”
“Depends entirely on what it was and how much. Ethan, what happened?”
I told him.
His voice changed immediately.
“Call emergency services.”
“They’re on the way.”
“Save the container. Do not let anyone throw it away.”
I turned to Lena. “Tell the officers not to let Rebecca clean anything.”
She nodded.
On the security feed, Rebecca dragged Henry by the shoulders out of the kitchen.
My stomach turned.
“Where is she taking him?”
The hallway camera picked them up next. Henry’s shoes scraped across the hardwood. His head rolled weakly against Rebecca’s arm.
She pulled him toward the east wing.
Toward the old guest suite.
That wing had been empty since my mother died.
Rebecca opened the guest bedroom door, dragged Henry inside, and came back out alone.
Then she locked it from the outside.
I had never installed an exterior lock on that door.
“Zoom in,” I said.
Lena tapped the security app.
A brass slide bolt had been screwed into the frame.
New.
Very new.
“Who installed that?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
Rebecca hurried downstairs, picked up the medicine bottle, and slipped it into her purse.
“No,” I said.
She moved toward the mudroom.
The front gate camera showed a black SUV pulling into the circular drive.
I recognized the driver before the vehicle stopped.
Caleb Ross.
My estate manager.
The man who had worked for my family for twelve years.
He entered through the side door without knocking.
Rebecca met him in the hall.
“You gave him too much,” Caleb hissed.
“He spit half of it out.”
“He still collapsed.”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Caleb glanced toward the ceiling.
“Why are the cameras moving?”
Rebecca froze.
Then both of them looked up.
My phone buzzed.
May you like
The security feed went black.
Every camera in my house had just been shut off from inside.
