Chapter 7 - A Face on the Camera

The garage footage showed the stranger entering through a service gate at 6:42 p.m. He wore a clinic security badge.

At 6:45, Marcus opened the gate from his phone.

Adrian watched the clip twice. Then a third time.

“Send copies to three separate accounts,” he told his assistant, Naomi Price. “One to my attorney. One to the detective I'm about to call. One to you.”

Naomi hesitated. “Your brother controls the company's network.”

“Then use your personal phone.”

Rosa sat with Sophie at the kitchen table, telling her a story about a brave little fox. Adrian knelt beside his daughter.

“Sweetheart, did you really see Mommy last night?”

Sophie nodded. “She was on the screen. The lady with the silver glasses let me talk to her.”

“A video call?”

“She said Mommy was sleeping, but Mommy opened her eyes.”

Adrian turned to Rosa. “Who is the lady?”

“Dr. Celia Ward. She used to work for the clinic.”

Naomi had worked for Adrian for seven years, long enough to know when he was hiding fear behind instructions. She set a cup of coffee beside him and opened a second screen. 'You can be angry later,' she said. 'Right now we preserve everything.' She copied the garage footage to encrypted drives, photographed the security logs, and sent the files to an attorney outside the family's firm.

The footage revealed details Adrian had missed: Marcus stepping into view before the intruder arrived; a black medical transport van idling beyond the gate; a woman in silver-framed glasses standing beside it. Naomi enlarged the badge on the man's jacket. The logo belonged to the clinic Evelyn had been investigating before her death.

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Rosa described the silver-glasses woman as Dr. Celia Ward, a physician who had objected to the clinic's drug trials. Naomi searched her name. The obituary had a photograph, a date, and a memorial service listed in another state. But the photograph was old, and the service had been private. Naomi tapped the screen. 'Either Sophie's mistaken,' she said, 'or someone is collecting dead people the way this family collects awards.'

Naomi looked up from her laptop. “Adrian? Dr. Ward was reported dead three weeks ago.”