Chapter 7 - THE NURSE THEY FRAMED
Three officers surrounded us before I could touch the car.
Officer Ruiz approached with her hand near her holster.
“Step away from the vehicle.”
Maeve raised both hands.
“That bottle was not there before.”
Ruiz looked through the window.
“We received an anonymous report.”
“Of course you did,” I said.
“The caller claimed Nurse Donnelly poisoned Tanner and planned to blame Mrs. Pierce.”
Maeve’s face went pale.
Ruiz continued.
“We need to search you.”
“She saved my son.”
“We will determine that.”
One officer removed the bottle from Maeve’s scrub pocket.
The original bottle.
The one she had preserved from the bedroom.
Now there were two.
Ruiz looked at her.
“Why do you have this?”
“Because your officers did not secure the scene.”
Maeve’s voice remained steady.
“I kept it so it could be tested.”
“That is evidence tampering.”
“That is evidence preservation.”
An officer opened Maeve’s bag.
Inside was a folded envelope.
She stared at it.
“I have never seen that.”
Ruiz opened it.
Photographs slid onto the hood of the patrol car.
They showed Maeve entering a pharmacy.
They showed her meeting Dr. Vale outside a restaurant.
They showed her standing beside Meredith.
Maeve picked up one photograph.
“This is fake.”
“You expect us to believe every piece of evidence against you is fake?”
“Yes.”
Her voice broke for the first time.
“Because I have never met Dr. Vale before tonight.”
Ruiz placed Maeve in handcuffs.
I stepped forward.
“You are arresting the wrong person.”
Ruiz looked at me.
“I am detaining a suspect.”
“My son is missing.”
“And chasing an abandoned building based on a child’s puzzle may waste the only time we have.”
I moved close enough that she could see the fury in my face.
“My son knew he was being taken.”
“He left that code because he trusted me to understand it.”
“Go to the observatory.”
Ruiz hesitated.
Then her radio crackled.
A dispatcher reported that a private ambulance had been seen heading north.
The Mars Observatory was north.
Ruiz turned to another officer.
“Take Nurse Donnelly to the station.”
Maeve pulled against the cuffs.
“No.”
“Lincoln needs me.”
The officer guided her toward the patrol car.
“Maeve,” I said.
She looked back.
“Tell me what to look for.”
Her eyes moved toward the photographs on the hood.
“The shadows.”
“What?”
“The photo outside the restaurant.”
“The sun is behind me.”
“But Dr. Vale’s shadow falls toward me.”
She was right.
The photograph was fabricated.
I looked at Ruiz.
“You see that?”
She examined the image.
Her expression changed.
“Take her cuffs off.”
The officer hesitated.
“Now.”
Maeve rubbed her wrists.
Ruiz pointed toward my car.
“You ride with us.”
We reached the observatory twenty minutes later.
The front gate hung open.
A private ambulance stood behind the main building.
Its rear doors were wide.
No one was inside.
We found Tanner’s hospital gown near the entrance.
A trail of blue chess pieces led down the hallway.
One piece every ten feet.
“He is guiding us,” I whispered.
The trail ended at the planetarium.
The heavy doors were locked.
Ruiz forced them open.
The room was dark.
The old star projector turned slowly above the seats.
A single spotlight illuminated the center aisle.
Tanner sat tied to a chair beneath it.
His head hung forward.
I ran toward him.
Then the projector stopped.
May you like
Meredith’s voice filled the dome.
“Take one more step, Lincoln, and the truth about your first wife plays on every screen in this building.”
