Chapter 2 - The Woman on the Screen
Nobody screamed.
That was what I remembered later.
A room full of people who had paid ten thousand dollars a seat suddenly had nothing to say.
Alexander held the ultrasound by its edges.
The patient line read ELISE MERCER.
His first wife’s maiden name.
Below it was a date from twelve days earlier.
“That could be anyone,” Cynthia said.
Alexander turned the image over.
A small handwritten note ran along the bottom.
Baby keeps hiding his face.
He touched the words.
“She used to write her lowercase f like that.”
Vanessa reached for the picture.
He pulled it away.
“Don’t.”
Rebecca closed the folder.
“We need a private room.
And the police.”
That broke the silence.
Phones rose.
Guests whispered.
Somebody near the bar said it had to be a publicity stunt.
I guided Lily toward the service corridor.
She looked up at me.
“Am I in trouble?”
“No.”
“Everybody’s mad.”
“They’re not mad because you did something wrong.”
Cynthia caught up before we reached the door.
“You should think very carefully about your job.”
I stopped.
She glanced down at Lily.
“And what happens when people decide you’re an unfit mother.”
Alexander heard her.
“Get away from them.”
Cynthia turned.
“Your wife is having a breakdown, and you’re defending the maid?”
“I’m not a maid,” I said.
She looked at my uniform jacket.
“Whatever you are.”
Rebecca stepped between us.
“That was a threat.
There are witnesses.”
I called my assistant, Ben, and told him to preserve the relevant hallway recordings.
Then I called my sister, June.
“I need you at the hotel.
Lily needs to go home with you.”
“How bad?”
I watched Dr. Price sitting between two guards, rubbing his hands together.
“Bad enough that I don’t want her here.”
In a conference room, Alexander laid the ultrasound beneath a lamp.
Rebecca photographed it.
“The clinic name is Westbridge Women’s Center.”
Alexander shook his head.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“I have,” I said.
Both looked at me.
“Not because of work.
A missing-person flyer was posted in our employee break room six months ago.
A woman disappeared near there.”
I remembered the tired face.
The dark hair.
The little scar beside her mouth.
I had taken the flyer down when the tape stopped sticking.
Then I had put it back up.
“She looked like the woman in your wedding photographs.”
Alexander gripped the chair.
“Who reported her missing?”
“A nurse.
I think her name was Ruth.”
From the doorway, Dr. Price spoke for the first time.
“You need to stop looking.”
Alexander crossed the room so fast the guards stood.
Price shrank against the wall.
“Why?”
The doctor looked at Vanessa.
May you like
Then at the clock.
“Because they’ll move her before midnight.”
