Chapter 3 - THE BROTHER WHO ANSWERED
Cameron called Graham without sitting down.
His brother answered on the second ring.
“Tell me this is about tomorrow’s board meeting.”
“Did you receive letters from a nurse named Nia Brooks?”
Silence.
Then Graham laughed.
“Is this another person asking for money?”
“Did you receive them?”
“Cameron, after the accident, people came out of everywhere.”
“There’s a photograph of Lily outside a rehabilitation center.”
Another silence.
Longer this time.
“Photographs can be altered.”
“I didn’t say when it was taken.”
Nia looked up.
Graham exhaled.
“I’m coming over.”
“No.
You’re staying where you are.”
Cameron ended the call.
Nia sat with her hands clenched.
“Your brother came to the hospital,” she said.
“He told the staff you were medically unable to make decisions.”
Cameron remembered a hotel room.
A physician.
Something prescribed to help him sleep.
He remembered Graham saying he would handle the arrangements.
Cameron had been grateful.
Now the memory made him sick.
He called Ruth Bell, an attorney who had represented him long before Hale Capital became an empire.
“I need you here,” he said.
“Bring someone who can preserve evidence.”
Ruth arrived with investigator Marcus Reed.
They photographed the papers, recorded Nia’s account, and placed the originals in protective sleeves.
Marcus asked about the missing chart.
“The hospital said I had accessed records without permission,” Nia replied.
“I lost my job.
Then someone showed up at my apartment.”
“What did they say?”
“That my father’s address wasn’t hard to find.”
“Did you report it?”
“Yes.
I have the report.
Nothing came of it.”
Cameron looked toward the kitchen.
Sofie was laughing at something Elena had said.
“Why come back now?”
Nia swallowed.
“Last week, I saw a girl in a news photograph.
A youth art exhibition at a residential school.
She looked like Lily.”
Marcus slid his laptop toward her.
Nia found the photograph.
Cameron leaned forward.
The girl was fourteen.
Thin shoulders.
Brown hair tucked behind one ear.
But it was the crooked little smile that stopped him.
Caroline’s smile.
Beneath the photograph was a name.
Eva Bennett — Briar House Academy.
Marcus searched the school’s registration.
May you like
Then he turned the screen.
Its largest private donor was a company owned by Graham Hale.
