Chapter 7 - THE DETECTIVE’S SECRET
Ryan stared at the photograph of the bloody message.
Detective Reeves stood across from him.
Neither man spoke.
Maya broke the silence.
“Why would Evelyn write that?”
The detective set the tablet down.
“We don’t know that she did.”
“Her earring was in the room.”
Ryan’s voice was cold.
“She was there.”
“That doesn’t prove she wrote the message.”
“It also doesn’t prove she didn’t.”
Detective Reeves looked toward Oliver’s room.
“You have every reason to question everyone.”
“Including me.”
Ryan stepped closer.
“Did you warn Charles about the search warrants?”
“No.”
“Did you know about the recovery house before tonight?”
“No.”
“Did you know my uncle?”
The detective hesitated.
Maya noticed.
“So you did.”
Reeves exhaled.
“Twenty-two years ago, Charles Whitmore was questioned in a fraud investigation.”
“I was a junior officer.”
“What happened?”
Ryan asked.
“The main witness disappeared.”
“The case collapsed.”
“Who was the witness?”
“An accountant named Peter Lawson.”
Ryan knew the name.
Peter Lawson had worked for his father.
The family had always said he stole money and fled the country.
“What does that have to do with you?”
“I was the last officer to speak with him.”
Reeves’s expression tightened.
“He told me Charles was laundering money through private medical foundations.”
“He claimed Evelyn knew.”
“Did my father know?”
“I don’t know.”
“The next morning, Lawson disappeared.”
“Charles accused me of leaking the witness’s location.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“But Internal Affairs believed someone in my unit did.”
Ryan watched him carefully.
“Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?”
“Because I didn’t want my history with Charles used to damage the investigation.”
Maya shook her head.
“You hid information.”
“Yes.”
“And now Evelyn warns us not to trust you.”
“Yes.”
Reeves did not defend himself.
That made Ryan less certain, not more.
The detective’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face became grim.
“We found Evelyn’s car.”
“Where?”
“Near the river.”
“Is she inside?”
“No.”
“There’s blood on the passenger seat.”
Ryan grabbed his coat.
“I’m going.”
“You’re staying with your son.”
“That woman nearly killed him.”
“She may also be our best witness against Charles.”
Ryan stopped.
Maya looked through the glass at Oliver.
“I’ll stay.”
Ryan turned toward her.
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
“But go.”
“Find out what happened.”
Ryan followed Reeves to the river.
Rain still fell, lighter now.
Evelyn’s car was parked beneath an abandoned railway bridge.
The driver’s door was open.
One shoe lay in the mud.
A trail of blood led toward the riverbank.
No body was found.
Inside the vehicle, police discovered a burner phone.
Its last call had been made to Ryan’s number.
The call never connected.
There was also a voice recording.
Detective Reeves played it.
Evelyn’s voice filled the car.
“Ryan, I know you may never forgive me.”
“I know what I did to Maya was cruel.”
“I told myself I was protecting Oliver.”
“That was a lie.”
“I was protecting my control over you.”
Ryan closed his eyes.
The recording continued.
“Charles changed the medication without telling me.”
“When I confronted him, he said Oliver’s death would solve everything.”
“I tried to take the boy to Mercer’s facility because I believed I could keep him alive there.”
“I was wrong.”
“Charles has been planning this since before Oliver was born.”
Ryan opened his eyes.
Before Oliver was born?
Evelyn’s voice became weaker.
“Your father discovered what Charles was doing.”
“He was going to report him.”
“The night your father died, Charles was with him.”
Ryan stopped breathing.
The recording ended with a struggle.
A man’s voice could be heard in the background.
“Give me the phone, Evelyn.”
Ryan recognized Charles.
Then there was a scream.
The audio stopped.
Reeves looked at Ryan.
“This suggests your father’s death may not have been natural.”
Ryan turned away from the car.
He thought of his father’s funeral.
Charles standing beside the coffin.
Charles comforting Evelyn.
Charles promising Ryan that the family would survive.
It had all been a lie.
An officer approached from the riverbank.
“We found something.”
In the mud beneath the bridge was a black leather glove.
Inside the glove was a hospital identification bracelet.
The name printed on it was not Evelyn’s.
It was Ryan Whitmore.
May you like
The admission date was seven years earlier.
The same night Ryan’s father died.
