Chapter 8 - The Man Ryan Paid
Mark Ellison was picked up at a gas station forty miles away.
He denied entering the hospital.
Then police found blue scrubs in his trunk.
By morning, he had an attorney.
By noon, he wanted a deal.
Ortiz wouldn't tell me everything, but she told me enough.
"Ellison says Ryan paid him to retrieve your phone from the hospital."
"My phone?"
"According to him, yes. He claims the powder was meant to make you sleep so he could enter the room without a confrontation."
Maya stared at her.
"That's supposed to make it better?"
"No."
"Why my phone?"
I already knew.
The screenshots.
The texts.
The proof.
Ortiz continued.
"Ellison says Ryan believed the only copies were on the device."
I almost smiled.
"They're not."
"We know. Don't advertise that."
Still, one question bothered me.
"Did he tell Ellison to drug me?"
"Ellison says Ryan told him to 'do whatever it takes without hurting her.'"
Dana shook her head.
"Men like Ryan love sentences like that. They sound clean until someone else gets dirty."
That afternoon, police searched Ryan's office.
They found the maintenance login written in a notebook.
They also found a receipt for a replacement security memory card purchased the morning before my fall.
But the original card was still missing.
Then Rosa called Maya.
"I remembered something," she said.
Her voice shook.
"After the ambulance left, I went back because I forgot my purse. Mr. Ryan was outside by the camera."
"What was he doing?"
"He had something small in his hand. Black. Like a card."
My breath caught.
"Did he see you?"
"No. I hid near the garage. Then he walked toward the fire pit."
Maya and I looked at each other.
Ortiz was already standing.
May you like
The estate had an outdoor fire pit beside the pool.
And according to Rosa, smoke had still been rising from it when she returned.
