Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN IN BLUE
Miriam Thorne was arrested before sunset.
She denied everything.
According to her lawyer, she had never seen the man from the hospital.
According to phone records, she had called him fourteen times in the previous month.
His name was Nathan Pike.
Former paramedic.
Dismissed three years earlier for stealing controlled medications.
The fire had started in a storage closet two floors below Audrey's room.
Someone had poured accelerant into a trash bin.
Pike entered the hospital seven minutes before the alarm.
This wasn't intimidation.
It was cleanup.
I sat beside Audrey while Rachel explained it.
Audrey didn't cry.
That scared me more than tears.
“Mom always said rich people aren't different,” she whispered.
I looked at her.
“She said they just have more expensive ways to make mistakes.”
I smiled sadly.
“Sounds like your mother.”
Audrey looked at me.
“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you ever hate her?”
The question surprised me.
“Your mother?”
“When she was alive.”
“No.”
“Never?”
“We fought.”
“You left.”
“For deployments.”
“You still left.”
There it was.
The wound beneath everything else.
I nodded.
“I did.”
She stared at her hands.
“Julian used that.”
“I know.”
“He said you'd always choose duty over me.”
My chest tightened.
“He said when you stopped coming to the gate, it proved he was right.”
I looked down.
Every time I had visited, security told me Audrey didn't want to see me.
Every time I left, Julian used it against her.
“I should have broken through that gate months ago.”
Audrey shook her head.
“You believed I wanted you gone.”
“I should have known better.”
For a long moment, she said nothing.
Then she reached for my hand.
“We both believed him.”
That was the first thing that felt like healing.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
Just truth.
The next morning, prosecutors searched a storage property owned by a Thorne shell company.
They found shredded financial documents.
Medication.
Fake medical files.
And letters.
Dozens of letters.
All addressed to me.
Audrey's handwriting.
Some only one page.
Some ten.
Rachel brought them in a cardboard evidence box.
I opened the first.
Dad,
I don't know if this will reach you.
Julian says you hate me now.
I don't believe him.
But I'm starting to get scared.
The second letter was written three weeks later.
Dad,
They took my phone.
Please don't believe anything Julian tells you.
The next one had water stains.
Dad,
I tried to leave today.
I think something is wrong with my ankle.
I don't know what day it is.
Then another.
Dad,
If you get this after I'm gone, please know I never stopped loving you.
I couldn't continue.
I covered my face.
Audrey sat beside me.
“I'm sorry.”
I looked at her.
“For what?”
“For making you cry.”
I pulled her into my arms.
“You never apologize for surviving.”
Then Marcus entered carrying another envelope.
No postage.
No address.
Just one word written across the front.
AUDREY.
“Found this taped under Arthur Thorne's desk.”
Audrey opened it.
Inside was a typed document.
A death certificate.
Her death certificate.
Already filled out.
Cause of death:
Self-inflicted overdose.
May you like
Date:
Three days from now.
